A Question of Fidelity
by Storm that Twists in Spiral
Summary: Three years after Northern mercenaries left the Four Kingdoms, and the monarchs of Hearts are plunged into new trials. Kiku has to choose his identity and where his heart really lies, Ludwig discovers the lies his throne rests on, and Feliciano struggles to prove himself in a world turned against him. Sequel to Question of Arrangement, Cardverse AU. GerIta plus other pairings...
1. Chapter 1: The Harvest

**My level of excitement has quickly risen. WOW, I am so glad to finally write this chapter. These scenes, mostly the first one, have been running through my head since Chapter 5 of Arrangement. So pumped.**

**Hello! My name is Elsi, and welcome to my Hetalia Cardverse AU - A Question of Fidelity! This IS a sequel to the paired fics I wrote earlier - A Question of Arrangement and the Issue with Arrangement. For this sequel, I have put together elements of both, resulting in CHANGING POV! WOOT! As of right now, we'll just have Kiku and Ludwig trading off. I'll add Feli if I feel I need to, which I don't think I will. But it's very possible.**

**Much GerIta ahead. The fluff is real.**

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Chapter 1: The Harvest

Another year, another harvest festival, and Ludwig sat leaning against his closed fist as he watched the proceedings from a throne on a hill. Kiku sipped at apple cider with one hand. Neither of them really acknowledged anymore that they were holding hands on the shared armrest the thrones shared. In year one, it had been slightly awkward, but now, Ludwig was all too used to it. Kiku felt similarly.

Ludwig was proud to call himself King of Hearts these days, and he was getting familiar with the idea of Kiku being Queen of Hearts – meaning, his husband. The realization had been difficult to take in at first, especially after Kiku had found out that Ludwig didn't actually love him. They had both been involved in a war with the Great North, the isolationist country to the cold north that had nearly wiped them out with technological prowess. Kiku had blackmailed and intimidated his way through the court, in the process saving Ludwig and the rest of Berlin – perhaps the Four Kingdoms as a whole, if he was to go that far.

The throne on the other side of Kiku was vacant, and it was to its occupant that Ludwig's eyes were invariably drawn. Today's event had been entirely Feliciano's work, and the Jack of Hearts would not have missed what Ludwig knew was his favorite festival. Today, Feliciano had discarded the heavy scarlet robe over the arm of his throne, and he danced in the hayfield wearing nothing more than a rolled-up pair of brown pants and a thin collared white tunic. He had clasped hands with two girls with big brown eyes and black hair, and the three of them were frolicking around with the other children. Ludwig smiled as Feliciano bent down to accept the hay-and-flower crown being pressed on his head by a blonde girl no older than seven. Kiku had confiscated Feliciano's _actual_ crown for the day, mostly out of fear that he would give it to the nearest little boy in sight as he had for the past two years. Ludwig personally thought that the hay-and-flower circlet fit Feliciano better than the thin gold band the nobles liked to see him in. Feliciano was a child of Hearts.

The music died down, and Feliciano turned up, beaming, to look at Ludwig and Kiku. Before Ludwig could remember to guard his face, the Jack of Hearts had already arrived before them, dragging a small mob of children with him.

"Ludwig! Kiku! Come meet my friends!"

He leaned forward, the top button of his shirt coming loose and giving Ludwig just a _glimpse_ of the smooth chest beneath. The flowers bobbed on his messy auburn hair, and the late harvest sun shone in an aura around him. Ludwig had no words for this, but he knew that his cheeks were bright scarlet, because Kiku squeezed his hand and then stood up. The Queen of Hearts bent down formally to shake hands with the suddenly-shy children.

"Hello," said Kiku. "My name is Kiku. I'm Queen of Hearts."

A few of them giggled. The smallest ones pulled on the bottom of Kiku's long Eastern-style robes.

"Why are you wearing a dress?" he asked. His older sister whacked him on the back of the head, but Kiku smiled.

"I came to Hearts from the Far East," she said. "On great celebrations, I like to pay my ancestors homage by celebrating how far I've come."

They nodded as if that make perfect sense. Ludwig smiled and rose from his chair as well, causing the small children to look up at him with wide, awestruck eyes.

"And this is King Ludwig!" said Feliciano, dancing to Ludwig's side and slinging an arm around his waist. "I know he looks big and scary, but he's really nice, ve~!"

Ignoring the burning pressure from Feliciano's arm, Ludwig let his cloak fall back onto his chair and crouched down, so he could look them in the eye.

"Hello," he said. "How are you?"

The little girl he was squatting before just stared, big brown eyes wide. Another little boy with black hair reached forward to tap him on the knee.

"Is it true you went to military school?" said the little boy.

"I did," said Ludwig. "It taught me many things."

Blue eyes gleamed back at him, and Ludwig mustered a smile, shaking the kid's hand.

"You have a firm handshake," he said. "You would impress a commander."

"Isn't it hard to get in?" said the boy.

"Not if you're willing to work hard," said Ludwig. "Are you?"

The boy sprung into a salute, and Ludwig saluted in return before standing up.

Feliciano was already spinning two girls in circles, and Kiku was telling three girls and a boy about Diamonds. Ludwig glanced down suddenly and met the eyes of a circle of men in thick cloaks.

He patted Feliciano on the shoulder as he passed, pulling his gloves on. Then he met them at the base of the thrones and gave a tip of his head.

"Your majesty." They were a trio of advisors, nobility from South Hearts who had come to Berlin explicitly for this festival and the diplomatic meeting in Paris next month.

"My lords," said Ludwig. "Are you enjoying the Harvest Festival this year?"

"It is quite colorful," said the middle one, a tall man with a bristly mustache. Ludwig knew him from the pictures on the walls at his military academy – this man had retired from service no less than five years prior. No doubt he was used to taking orders from men a third his age, but for the two men on either side of him, the same could not be said. The short blonde one owned the leading chain of apothecaries in Venice. The taller dark-haired one had gotten money a while ago – Ludwig wasn't sure what he did with himself now.

"The Jack of Hearts organized it," said Ludwig, indicating with a hand to Feliciano, who was now running the children back into the hay. He had lost his boots sometime in the last minute. Ludwig smiled to himself, imagining the maids grimacing at the sight of Feliciano's pink stockings ripped and dirtied.

"He seems quite invested," said the dark-haired noble, tugging on his lapels as if the sight of the Jack of Hearts playing in the hay was an offense. Sometimes Ludwig forgot that Feliciano had been raised a noble.

"He has put months into making this event absolutely perfect," said Ludwig. He nodded to each of them, hoping that a question would come up. They didn't seem to approve of the way they went about things. Ludwig needed their favor, as each held a great position in the political system in the South.

"I must congratulate you, your majesty," said the one in the middle. "Sometimes royal marriages do not work out, but you and your queen seem to get along quite well, despite your cultural differences."

_Cultural differences?_ Ludwig smiled and thanked the noble, but he knew he wasn't imagining the shift in mood.

"What is it now, your third year as king?" said the blonde noble. "You've had a rough start, the three of you, but all seems to be doing well. I assume nothing has happened that could start a scandal." The nobles laughed, but that tone had an edge to it, and Ludwig took a step back in spite of himself. The military man living inside him wanted to challenge these three as to what they meant, but he held his tongue. This was time to play the aristocrat, not the soldier; Ludwig was getting better at it, even if Feliciano could out-political him any day. Three years of "class training" had gone by painfully, and he could hold a lengthy discussion on the cultivation of wine and styles of painting. He and Kiku had become immensely better at not stepping on each other's feet while dancing, and Feliciano was quite intent on making Ludwig his dancing partner for more showy sequences. But he wasn't fond of being questioned, especially on a matter such as this – if the nobles caught wind of his affair with Feliciano, nothing could save his reputation, not even Kiku's permission. Not that it hadn't happened before, but as a young king just starting out…

"If that is all, I believe Kiku and I must begin wrapping up the festival," said Ludwig. "I'm afraid we have scheduled for a small dinner tonight, but we would be happy to accommodate you in the palace."

"That's very generous, your majesty," said the tall dark-haired noble. All three bowed, and Ludwig accepted their courtesy with a sweep of his head. Then he headed back and slung his cape around his shoulders again. Routine instructed him to rest his hand on Kiku's forearm and lean over.

"You seem tense," said Kiku. "Is everything alright with the lords?"

"Nothing of note," said Ludwig. "I fear they may be looking for some big secret, and we will of course have the one they're looking for."

Kiku meditated on this in silence, as he was prone to do. Then he patted Ludwig's hand, the perfect image of a man comforting his husband.

"We do not need to worry about the nobility until tomorrow," he said. "We will have a private dinner tonight and think about other things. At least for one night. It's a special occasion, and Feliciano deserves to be rewarded."

"I'll remind Toris to set out something nice," said Ludwig. "I would love to set aside obligation for tonight." He glanced up at the setting sun and sighed, signaling the trumpets to flare. Feliciano scampered back up to them, slinging his cape on.

"You aren't wearing boots," Ludwig reminded him. Feliciano smiled broadly, but he didn't do anything about that particular informality. Kiku took Ludwig's arm, and Feliciano signaled the trumpets to die down as the people of Berlin looked up at their monarchs for instruction. Forgetting about nobles and casual dress and looking forward to the dinner ahead, Ludwig raised his hand and began the prepared speech. As King of Hearts, the show never really ended.

XXX

Kiku was humming softly to himself, which put Ludwig into a good mood. The Eastern man was rarely so expressive. Ludwig had sent Toris to help set up their sitting room, where they would be eating dinner with Feliciano. Now he was left staring at himself in the mirror, adjusting his bow tie while meditating on the day behind them. Feliciano had bought him this particular bow tie, and he quite liked it. He quite liked this suit, too – he would have to thank Toris for this. Ludwig couldn't help but wonder whether Feliciano would wear the dark brown pants or the tan ones. He liked the dark brown ones better. Satisfied that his bowtie was precisely straightened, Ludwig placed his hands on the counter and stared at himself in the mirror for a few more moments. He had already meticulously done his hair, and he knew that if he meddled any more he would be bordering on late.

He didn't quite know why he was getting so dressed up for a dinner between him, Kiku, and Feliciano. Maybe it was because Kiku didn't mind it when Feliciano fed Ludwig a bit of his soup, and because Kiku didn't mind it when Ludwig spent a few seconds longer than necessary watching Feliciano come in. At first, right after Kiku had found out about this affair, everything had been quite awkward. Now, the only thing Ludwig felt bad about was excluding Kiku from this. But the Eastern man hadn't minded in two years, so he didn't spend too much time worrying. Tonight, he didn't have to count to three in his head every time he so much as glanced down the table at Feliciano, no matter how he was dressed or how he laughed or how much wine he drank.

Ludwig was startled from his increasingly tangled thoughts by the light sound of a Viennese waltz drifting into the room, replacing Kiku's soft humming with a reminder of the dance he had _just_ mastered. Smoothing the top of his hair one more time, he turned and wandered through the door to the sitting room.

Kiku was shooing Toris and Niran – Kiku's personal attendant - out of the room when Ludwig entered the room. Ludwig called his name, and Kiku turned around with a shy smile most uncharacteristically excited.

"What's going on?" asked Ludwig. Kiku had changed from the festival into something light, reminiscent of what he usually wore on days when he was sure he wouldn't have to leave his study. "Why music? Wasn't this a formal dinner?"

Kiku clasped his hands behind his back, looking unusually chipper.

"I decided that am going to go for a walk," said Kiku. "I will eat dinner with the advisors tonight."

"But – "

"Ludwig, you have probably forgotten what today is," said Kiku. Ludwig blinked.

"October 3, the day of the Harvest Festival –"

"And your birthday," added Kiku. "So consider this my present."

His birthday? Ludwig blinked again as he processed this. He had gotten in the habit of not celebrating his birthday, or even acknowledging that he _had_ a birthday. Birthdays were something to put on official documents and to use as a marker for keeping track of age he was. Apparently, last spring, Kiku and Feliciano had gone digging through said official documents to figure out exactly when Ludwig's birthday was.

"Happy birthday, Ludwig," said Kiku. "Oh, and I offered to help Bella with some reports, so I have arranged to sleep on the other side of the castle tonight. I hope that will not be an inconvenience." His politesse was accompanied by a smirk, and with a glimmer of mischief in his eyes, Kiku slipped out of their room.

Ludwig stood in their sitting room, realizing that he should have guessed all of this. Between the candle on the small table, the music still playing, and the bright red rose petals littering the floor around the table, Kiku had orchestrated the romance perfectly and without Ludwig having any knowledge. A few minutes later, there was a nonsensical, tapped knock, and Ludwig was effectively startled out of his daze long enough to answer the door.

He instantly descended into another one. For Feliciano stood there in a cream-colored dress shirt, a luminescent gold waistcoat, a scarlet coat matching his tie to the shade, and the dark brown pants Ludwig particularly liked. His face was turned up in that smile Feli reserved particularly for him, the one that made Ludwig turn from almighty King of Hearts to a little boy wanting to go to military school and showing up laughing with scraped knees and dirty cheeks.

"Happy birthday, Ludwig!" said Feliciano. He tilted his head to the side as Ludwig continued to take in his every features. "Did you forget about your birthday? Ve~I told you I would remember, didn't I?" He brushed past Ludwig and into the room before stopping. "Kiku? Hey, Kiku!"

Ludwig shut the door softly, took two steps, and spun Feliciano around before kissing him. It took about two seconds for Feliciano to accept what was happening, and then Feli's arms snaked around Ludwig's neck, holding him close for a few moments.

"I've been wanting to do that all day," whispered Ludwig as they parted. Feli's pretty eyes met Ludwig's. "Gott, Feliciano…"

Overcome with flashing memories of Feli at the Harvest Festival, Ludwig placed a kiss to his lover's neck, for an instant feeling Feliciano's racing pulse against his lips. He smiled. For a second they stood like that, arms around each other, Ludwig leaning his head on Feliciano's shoulder and breathing in the rose-scented soap that still lingered on his skin.

"It's just us, then?" said Feli after a moment. He pulled away from Ludwig to take a good look at the room. "Wow, look at all of this!"

"Kiku did it," said Ludwig. Feliciano walked around the room, subconsciously moving in time to the Viennese waltz that still played in the background and pretending to be ignorant of Ludwig's predator-like stare. Were it not for his hunger after making speeches all day, Ludwig would have been entirely willing to bypass dinner and pull Feli into his bedroom.

"The attendants will be up soon," said Ludwig. Forcing himself to remain composed, he strolled over to Feliciano and offered a hand. "Can I take your coat?"

"Ve~ such a gentleman," teased Feli. Ludwig reached over before Feliciano could fiddle with the buttons and deftly slid the coat off of Feliciano's shoulders. Feli shivered as Ludwig's hands passed over his shoulders. For a second, Ludwig hesitated. Whenever he was around Feliciano, he wanted to do nothing but stare at him, and hold him close, and kiss him warmly, and make sure that he would hold onto Feli no matter what happened. So much had happened, and Ludwig was terrified that something, one day, would come and try to rip them apart.

Then there was a soft knock, and Ludwig guided Feliciano over to the table just as a pair of attendants - for once not wearing hoods – swept into the room, bearing trays.

"Dinner, your majesties," said the lead attendant. He lowered the plates onto the table. Another attendant filled up their glasses with a small substance of a white wine. Ludwig sniffed it, sipped it, and deemed it acceptable.

"Look at you," said Feliciano, a twinkle in his eye. "You're a proper noble, ve!"

"And you play in hay bales like a commoner," said Ludwig, tipping his glass to his lover. "It seems we've traded places."

He glanced down as their dinner was unveiled, and Ludwig's mouth watered right away. Sliced pork over noodles. Sausages. White asparagus. Scalloped potatoes. All of his favorite foods, and across the table was Feliciano, grinning. And there was music in the background, and the candlelight cast such lovely shadows onto the rose petals all around and the golden-rose embellishments of the room.

"Happy birthday, Ludwig," said Feliciano, reading the look on Ludwig's face for exactly what it was. Feli reached over and brushed his fingers over the back of Ludwig's hand. "I hope you're happy."

"I am," said Ludwig, kissing Feliciano's hand and making his companion giggle.

Their conversation dissolved into talk without worries for a long time, and Ludwig cleaned his plate before taking Feliciano's uneaten asparagus tips, and between them, they finished off the course. Two attendants came to clear the plates, and then Feliciano emptied the bottle over their cups, took a sip, and pulled Ludwig to his feet as the background music turned to a slower song.

"Ve~let's dance," said Feliciano. Accustomed by now, Ludwig placed an arm around Feli's hip and clasped the other. A few seconds, and it truly sunk in: they were alone. They could dance like no one was watching, because no one _was_ watching. Ludwig boldly moved his arm to Feliciano's lower back, pulling him in closer so that they could sway together, and that Feli could lean against Ludwig's chest.

It was so content it didn't feel real. They danced together often, kissed whenever it was possible, and Feliciano and Ludwig had left their own beds unoccupied more than once over the past three years. Ludwig was always awestruck at how beautiful these moments between them really were. With the candlelight flickering, the music playing, and the wine buzzing in their systems, it was…what Ludwig wanted at all times.

"Is this even real?" murmured Ludwig. Feliciano lifted his head off of his partner's chest, and Ludwig brought his head down so that their foreheads were resting against one another. The music faded out to a dull click, and gently, Feli stood on tiptoe to give Ludwig a chaste kiss.

"We've had three peaceful years," said Feliciano. "I believe we can have more."

Ludwig regretted bringing up the past as soon as he said it, for they were instantly lost in memories. Three years ago, Ludwig and Feliciano and Kiku had been thrown into a war with the Great North halfway through their training to be monarchs. The monarchs of the other kingdoms had been killed, and they had been given a hasty coronation, a sped-up marriage, and then they had gone to Berlin, walking straight into a trap. Somehow, Kiku had saved them, but had he and the Spades army been any slower, Ludwig would have died. As it was, he had spent a month in bed recovering from inhaling poisonous fumes, as there was apparently an incinerator in the basement of the Berlin palace that ran off of poison coals.

"I would go through all of that again," said Ludwig softly, making Feliciano look up again. At last, it seemed to occur to them that they had been dancing to a silent room or several minutes, and they stood there gazing at each other. "If I knew that I had this waiting for me."

"This?" said Feliciano. He put his arms around Ludwig's neck and tilted his head, suddenly becoming less sad and all flirty again. Ludwig had always been awestruck at Feliciano's uncanny ability to turn the mood on its head, but here they were.

"Yes," he said coyly.

"How about some detail, hm?" Feliciano winked. Before two seconds had passed, he let out a _ve!_ of surprise as Ludwig scooped his feet out from under him to carry him, bridal style, back to Ludwig's side of the room. Grinning at Feli's appalled yell, Ludwig tossed the smaller man on the bed and slipped his door shut. He flopped onto the bed beside Feli, and they stared at each other. They were always doing that, it seemed.

"I mean," said Ludwig, cradling Feliciano's hands in his own. "That if I had to be bedridden for an entire month just to see you play in the hay with seven-year-olds, to help you take flowers out of your hair and scold you for not wearing your boots while making a speech, to have a candlelit dinner with you and know that I could keep you all to myself…I would do it without hesitation."

Feliciano's face split into a _real_ smile, a proper one that Ludwig knew fell into a category of Feli smiles that only Ludwig saw.

"I love you," said Ludwig. There were tears brimming in Feliciano's eyes. A powerful surge of heat shot through him. "Gott, Feliciano, I love you." He peppered kisses onto Feli's face, feeling Feliciano wiggle closer to him. Ludwig placed a kiss to the top of Feliciano's head and felt Feli nuzzle into his neck.

"I love you, too," whispered Feliciano, placing an open-mouthed kiss to his throat. "You make me happy, ve, and I'm glad I get to spend your birthday with you."

"You're the best present I could ask for," said Ludwig. He rolled onto his back, pulling Feliciano on top of him. The room was dark, but there were still candles lining the desks, and it was enough to see his lover's face. Feli's smile could stretch across galaxies, light up planets that existed in the dizzy daydreams of scientists, and extinguish the moon by radiant competition.

Naturally, Ludwig pulled Feliciano and kissed him until he saw stars.

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**God, if only everyone could be happy all the time...**

**If you're excited for the road ahead, if you liked/hated this chapter, or if you just have some advice, let me know by leaving me a review! Don't forget to favorite and follow! Thanks, everyone!**

**~Elsi**


	2. Chapter 2: The Eastern Queen

**Hello, everyone! Wow, this chapter has taken me forever. I blame a variety of different reasonings, mainly school and writer's block. It took me forever to get through the meetings.**

**Oh, and the random lords and ladies are all OC's. I couldn't villain-ize many more characters...but don't worry. Some APH characters WILL be villains. Promise. **

**We meet a supporting protagonist in this chapter. I really wanted to put him into A Question of Arrangement, but he wouldn't fit...he fits beautifully into Fidelity, though, so there you go! **

**Please enjoy!**

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Chapter 2: The Eastern Monarch

Whenever he slept on the east side of the palace, Kiku would leave the curtains open, so that when the first rays of sunlight crept over the horizon, they would dazzle into his window and startle him from sleep. He would lie there in bed, watching as laser-beams of orange light steadily grew thicker, lighter, until his torso was splashed with the golden glow of the outside world. Then Kiku would cross to his window, open it, and lean out to watch Berlin wake up.

This morning, Kiku opened the window and breathed in the late fall air, leaning on a hand to watch as a fall breeze tugged another fistful of leaves to the cobbled courtyard for one of the attendants to clean up later. He smiled to himself as he glanced towards his tower, which he could see on the other side of the courtyard. Ludwig's face last night had been worth taking on the meeting Ludwig had originally had scheduled with the generals. He hoped it had been worth it.

A few more minutes, and Kiku could hear the royal guard trotting around the castle, their horses clipping in perfect time. He heard the light calls of attendants down in the courtyard and in the open hallways around the palace. He heard the tolling of the Berlin cathedral and watched the sunlight shining on the dome in the distance. Morning, peace time. The only smoke came from fires lit to bake bread and make iron. The only cries came from children excited over a game of football.

He wandered to the chair in the corner to read over the documents he and Bella had gone over last night. Nothing worth his concern – preparations for the royal procession into Diamonds, which Kiku thought was a silly affair. But a Kingdoms Conference only happened every four years, and tradition insisted on having a parade to welcome the foreign kingdoms in. He would only be a visitor this year. His Diamonds equivalents – Francis, Lili, and Vash – would be spending this time stressing over every possible detail.

There was a knock on the door, and Kiku called Niran in. The boy, who was rapidly approaching both Kiku's height and the age of seventeen, had been serving him with attention and care since he had lived in the emergency palace in Venice. Niran was meant to be a temporary attendant, but Kiku had insisted on welcoming him into Berlin, even though it was rare for an underage attendant to wait on the queen himself.

"Good morning, highness," said Niran. "I am told that breakfast will be in the drawing room this morning."

"Excellent," said Kiku. "Are we expecting anyone in particular?"

"No," said Niran. "The Foreign Advisor asked me to tell you that the lords of Florence and Milan will be joining us for lunch and planning today."

"As expected," said Kiku. "Very well. I'll wear something to make them feel welcome."

"Yes, highness," said Niran brightly. "I'll draw a bath right away."

Less than an hour later he was dressed in loose black pants and a cream-and-red pinstriped shirt, and Niran read him a list of the credentials of the officials who had arrived the day before. He walked into the small library that served as their drawing room.

"Good morning, Kiku!" Kiku smiled and glanced up at the small blonde boy whose feet dangled over the side of the bookshelf. "Did you sleep well?"

"Hello, Peter," said Kiku. "I had a good night, thank you. How did you get up there?"

Peter hopped down, landing on the table and scattering some papers. Niran offered a hand to help him down.

"I climbed, of course," said Peter. "I was told to do my mathematics, but it's so _dull._ Why can't I have magic practice with Gilbert all the time? Not that I don't like Hera, but – "

"Ahem."

"Master Karpusi, _yes_, yes."

The door creaked open, and there was Master Karpusi himself, looking as usual as if he had just rolled up out of bed and draped some dark crimson jacket around himself.

"Good morning, highness," said Heracles through a yawn.

"Long night?" said Kiku as the Master of Stars entered the room and put his coffee mug down on the table.

"Saturn is particularly bright for these few nights," said Heracles. "It's – Peter, these problems aren't finished."

"I was calculating them," said Peter. "Then Kiku distracted me. The answers are 504, 88, 17, and…3.4. No, 3.39. Sorry."

"I should stop giving you paper," said Heracles. "Waste of what bureaucrats like Queen Kiku would like to mark up."

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but we're going to have a meeting in here in a few minutes," said Kiku. Heracles nodded as if this required great thought.

"That bastard Sadiq going to be here? _Don't_ define, Peter."

"Aw, but I haven't defined – "

"Yes, he will be," said Kiku. "We're meeting some of the foreign ministers apparently."

"Fine. Peter, go get your sketchpad. I'll meet you in the courtyard."

"Are we going cat-catching again? Aw, boy!"

The magical little boy was out the room in an instant. Peter was apprentice to Gilbert, the Joker, the man with magical divining powers that was in charge of keeping peace between the Four Kingdoms and deciding the career of every twenty-one year old, including the monarchs. Three years ago, when the Great North attacked the Four Kingdoms, Peter had come along as the adopted son of a pair of ministers, but Kiku had managed to awake his magic and convince him into stepping into the shoes he was meant to fill. In fifty years, Peter would choose the next set of monarchs and become the Joker himself. He was more oracle than human being, but he was still a child. He moved through the kingdoms by season, just as Gilbert did, and took lessons with the Master of Stars in each kingdom.

"Have fun catching cats," said Kiku as Heracles gathered the papers the boy had left behind. The Master of Stars gave a lazy incline of his head as he exited.

"Is there anything I can do, highness?" said Niran as Kiku took a seat in one of the chairs and accepted the folder of materials they would need for the meeting.

"If you could run a note down to the kitchen asking for a pot of tea and some biscuits," said Kiku. "I should think Sadiq would have handled it, but there's no harm in checking."

"Yes, highness!" said Niran.

Kiku was alone in the room for a few minutes. He liked this small library more than the grand one on the main floor of the castle. Sadiq liked it too, but for different reasons. Sadiq claimed it made the atmosphere of a meeting more personal than a formal council room. Kiku just liked it because of the little things: it was usually quiet, and the books had that old smell to it, and the sunlight was dazzling in the mornings. Sometimes, when Kiku woke up early and had little work, he would perch in the _chaise longue_ by the window and read for a little bit.

At that moment, the doors opened, and the Foreign Minister, Sadiq Adnan himself entered, talking amiably with the four nobles of nearby lands that had been invited to this luncheon. Kiku rose from his chair with a compatible smile to shake their hands and invite them to sit.

"It is good of you to meet us, Queen Kiku," said one noble, a wealthy merchant called Lord Surrey. "We are thrilled to be coming with you on the upcoming parade."

"I am glad to have you with me," said Kiku.

The seventh member of their little council, Bella Dekker, Economic Advisor, took her seat next to Kiku within seconds.

"I apologize for being late," she said.

"Not at all," said Lady Mara, the countess of a province in North Hearts. "We haven't even begun discussions."

"Excellent," said Bella. "I have received the details of our entrance into Diamonds. We are to carry with us the following provisions…"

As she began to list, and as the nobility opened the discussion as to who would lead what train, Kiku sat back in his chair and imagined Peter and Heracles chasing and sketching cats in the courtyard. What he would give to go with them and draw the kitties, but instead, here he was listening to them prattle on about how many wine barrels would suffice as an offering and whether they needed seven white horses and ten black or ten black horses and seven white.

"What do you think, your Majesty?" asked Lady Mara suddenly, reaching over to fondly pat Kiku's hand. "The decorations aren't going to be too Western for you, are they?"

"Pardon?" said Kiku. What exactly was _too_ Western?

"I've heard you like to carry your Eastern customs with you," said Lady Mara. "Would you prefer it if the parade involved them as well?"

"The parade should celebrate Hearts," said Kiku. "I am a mere vessel."

"Where are you from again, Queen Kiku?" said Lord Surrey.

"A province called Tokyo, my lord."

"Have you been back?" said Lady Mara.

Kiku felt something akin to irritation.

"The Far East is a war-torn wreck," said Kiku. "Hearts is my home now. I have no intentions of going back to my birthplace."

"But surely you must miss it," said Lady Mara. She used a fan as an accessory to her points, and it was beginning to seem part of a staged performance instead of as an article to keep oneself cool. "Do you still have family there?"

"Meaning no offense, my lady, but I would like to focus on the matter at hand," said Sadiq a little _too_ curtly. Kiku sent him a grateful glance down the table. Lady Mara brandished her fan.

"Oh, you're no fun, Minister. I'm just asking a few questions. We haven't had an outsider become ruler before."

_An outsider?_ Kiku had fought away his misgivings about whether or not he deserved to be Queen, as an outsider. Knowing that Gilbert had chose him and knowing that he had saved the kingdom was enough to assure him that he was in the right place. But to have others question his authenticity to Hearts didn't help.

"I'm afraid I cannot stay past the pre-determined end time," said Bella with a smile. The side of her calf brushed into Kiku's, and he recognized the lie and thanked her for it silently. "If we could achieve our goals here, I would most appreciate it."

"Very well," said Lady Mara. "What were we discussing?"

XXX

At dinner the night before they left, Kiku made the grand mistake of wearing a vest decorated with a traditional Eastern pattern. He had been smart enough to stay out of his more comfortable robes, but all the same, when he walked into the dining room, he realized that some of the nobles took no notice of the black jacket adorned with the Hearts symbol, but instead of the single article of clothing beneath.

The first person to his side was Lady Aeron Lyman, one of the wealthiest politicians at a regional level. She smiled at him from eyes with too much mascara and took his elbow.

"Good evening, Queen Kiku," she said. "I was wondering if you would care to sit next to me and my husband this evening."

"I would be delighted," said Kiku, far too used to this sort of thing. So he took a seat beside Lady Lyman and her husband, and before he knew it, the seat on his right had been occupied as well, by none other than the fan-waving menace Lady Mara.

"Good evening, Mara," said Lady Aeron. "Are you coming to Diamonds?"

"No, unfortunately, but I came up to make preparations. And you, Aeron?"

"I wouldn't miss it," said Aeron. Her long fingernails dusted over Kiku's sleeve. "What a fine vest, Queen Kiku. I have not seen that pattern in the local stores."

"No," said Kiku. "I had it tailored. It is a traditional pattern from my province."

"How lovely," said Lady Aeron. The conversation paused for the serving of the soup, and for a moment, Kiku thought he had gotten clear of the cross-fire from Lady Mara. But then her fan was in his face, and he turned politely.

"You must tell me more about Eastern clothing, your highness," said Mara. "I would like something in this pattern of yours. What is it called?"

Kiku told her, and Lady Aeron squealed.

"What a delightful dialect!" she said. "I've never heard it spoken this way. Please, tell me something else."

Kiku almost refused, but even Lord Lyman was looking this way, and Mara was smiling behind her fan, so Kiku smiled cordially and recited a poem for them. As he finished, he tucked into his soup, wishing desperately for Aeron to mention something about _banking_ or anything else. It wasn't that he didn't like to talk about the Far East, simply that he mistrusted the way Mara was latching into these questions and comments as if they were evidence of some horrendous crime Kiku had committed.

But then his dinner was filled with _tell me more, Queen Kiku_ and _Oh, I should like to visit, if this war business ever clears up,_ and _do you ever miss it?_ Kiku regretted the vest. Kiku regretted not being born blonde like Ludwig and not learning _Classique_ like Feliciano. He regretted that his knowledge of Hearts customs was from books instead of stories told father-to-son, and he regretted that he preferred Eastern music and didn't _really_ like the color red.

Then Lord Surrey stood up and called for attention.

"On behalf of the Aristocratic Guild of Berlin, I would like to thank our gracious hosts, and thank the great monarchs of Hearts for their hospitality to not only those gathered here, but the people of Hearts as a whole." He smiled and raised his glass. "In light of the upcoming World Meeting in Paris next week, I would like to once again celebrate the accomplishments of our young rulers. When disaster struck three years ago, King Ludwig led the military to victory. Jack Feliciano cleverly managed discussions with the King of the Great North. Queen Kiku summoned the knights of Spades. Without all three of them, we would be lost."

There was agreement down the table, but Kiku glanced across it at Feliciano, who had that glazed smile on this time. Ludwig was openly frowning, staring at a spot halfway down the table instead of up at Lord Surrey. Kiku didn't want them to look that way, as if they had done nothing.

"And since then, they have led our kingdom with grace and majesty. I congratulate Jack Feliciano on a marvelous Harvest Festival." One of the lords gave a rousing cry, probably evidence of his time to stop drinking. There was tittering laughter. Lord Surrey chuckled as well and raised his glass again. "And King Ludwig and his Eastern Queen have done us well, too. To the Monarchs of Hearts!"

"Monarchs of Hearts!" went down the table, and Kiku sat as they tilted back their drinks and drank to his honor, wishing he could vanish. Across the table, he met the eyes of Heracles, who tilted his glass to Kiku for a fraction of a second before rising from his chair and moving back into the hallway.

"If you ladies will excuse me for just a moment," said Kiku, and he pushed back his chair.

He met Heracles leaning against the open window at the end of the hallway.

"I thought you could need some fresh air and a conversation," said Heracles. Kiku rested his elbows on the windowsill and leaned out into the evening air, not saying anything for a moment. "You looked in crisis."

Kiku didn't know how to form words.

"Perhaps you don't know why something is bothering you," said Heracles. "You can't point the blame at anyone. But do you know what is bothering you?"

"King Ludwig and _his Eastern Queen._" Kiku repeated the words back in the same tone Lord Surrey had used.

"I see," said Heracles. The Master of Stars was the right person to talk to, despite his constant sleep deprivation and obsession with sketching cats in the courtyard. Kiku hadn't known him in the days of the Great North and their first days as monarchs, but it had been three years since then. Heracles was growing into the person he trusted most, apart from perhaps Feliciano and Ludwig.

"The nobility has poked at me being an outsider all day," said Kiku. "I should not be bothered by something so trivial. I am sorry for burdening you with this."

"You are burdening no one," said Heracles. "You are only lessening the burden on yourself."

"I thought I had proved myself as the right monarch for Hearts," said Kiku.

"Do you feel now that you have not?"

"I have proved it to myself. So many times."

"Why are you questioning yourself now, then?"

"Their questions, their comments. It feels like they are probing me for something." Kiku glanced at Heracles. "I could not say what they are looking for."

"The Aristocratic Guilds have always been suspicious of everything that moves," said Heracles. "I would not take it personally."

"They should not be suspicious of me," said Kiku. "I wish I could ease their minds. They have influence.

"They have _affluence_," said Heracles. "There is a difference. Within these castle walls, I can say of none that do not trust your policies."

"Would you have given credit to Ludwig and Feliciano for the things Lord Surrey did?" said Kiku, glancing at his friend.

"Would I have called the Berlin Conference a military victory led by Ludwig? No," said Heracles. "Would I have placed negotiations under Feliciano? No. But I would not have given you credit for a military alliance with Spades, either.

"That being said," added Heracles before Kiku could say anything, "It is hard to give much credit out at all when discussing the Berlin Conference. Lord Surrey and the Guild latched on to what they could."

"Yes," said Kiku. "The Eastern queen, skilled at foreign relations."

"You are all of those things."

"Am I not more?" said Kiku. "Am I not a man of Hearts?"

"The Joker says you are," said Heracles. "You told me that the Soul of Hearts confirms it. And you say you are. Therefore, you are."

"The nobility does not say I am," said Kiku. "I wonder if the other citizens will side with the outsider queen, or their long-beloved aristocratic guilds?"

"I see I cannot ease your mind," said Heracles. He lightly patted Kiku's shoulder, leaving the window. "Well, now that I'm out of that accursed dinner, I am off to visit my telescope."

"Is Saturn still bright?" asked Kiku.

"No," said Heracles. "But the rest of the stars are a marvel." The Master of Stars maneuvered his way up the hallway. "Kiku."

Kiku turned back towards Heracles.

"This meeting of the four kingdoms," said Heracles. "I should think your performance there will help convince the nobility. They have not seen you in action, and this could be that chance."

Kiku nodded, thinking on this and staring up at the stars Heracles loved so dearly. The world meeting – he hadn't considered that the nobility would watch him negotiate. Maybe they would bring back word to their stupid aristocratic guilds that he was dedicated to Hearts, the same sort of man as the Queen that came before.

Kiku was determined to make sure the meeting went perfectly.

* * *

**Hey, look, there are whispers of plot in this. Chapter 1 was basically entirely a filler chapter, not gonna lie. This one was supposed to be mostly filler as well, but there's some plot. Some angsty-Kiku for your enjoyment. Also, YAY HERACLES! I imagine Greece as a kooky philosopher and scholar in this universe. He's in charge of tutoring any children that may be living in the palace, which in this case just means Peter. So he just gives Kiku advice and watches the stars. Also, he likes drawing cats. Meow!**

**So, that's that. If you liked this chapter, have any hopes or thoughts about where I'm going to take this story, please drop me a review! Even if it's just a few words, knowing you guys are out there means a lot. Thanks, everyone! Hopefully, I'll be back soon.**

**Next chapter is the meeting and some plot for Luddy. 3**

**~Elsi**


	3. Chapter 3: The Meeting in Paris

**Hello, everyone! I'm baaaaaack! I know it has been a while since I last updated this story. Luckily, it's November! That means it is NaNoWriMo time! For this month, I have/plan to have devoted almost 20K words to this story, which is about five chapters. This is going to be the first of those five chapters. **

**Here we go a plot-plotting...and bringing back some other APH characters we definitely don't get to see often enough. I don't own any of these characters, or even the AU, really. Just assume I don't own anything. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 3: The Meeting in Paris

The hooves of horses served as the closest thing Ludwig had to a reminder that if he did not leave his hiding spot now, he would be no more than four minutes early – which was cutting it fairly close. Ludwig threw open the desk drawer. If it was not here, where else would it be? He had idly put his old military baton here somewhere, and he couldn't imagine leaving the castle without it. He pushed aside the papers, not concerned for the moment about the disarray of paper and pen. He would have to organize it when he got back; there was no time anymore.

Where was his baton, the scepter that had been presented to him upon his appointment as regiment leader of his apprentice squad? He had carried it on his person until settling into the Berlin Palace, and now…how could he function without it? Forgoing pride, Ludwig kneeled to check under his desk. Surely it had to be somewhere. On his hands and knees, he pulled under the desk and checked under the back panel to no avail. Ludwig recoiled backwards as the realization hit him: he was going to be on time, which was practically late.

As he pulled out, something sharp rammed into the back of his head, and Ludwig couldn't help but yelp as he turned to look at what he had hit. The desk drawer had fallen open again, but instead of his normal documents, Ludwig realized that he was staring at an empty, dust-ridden shelf, in which there was only a small, leather-bound red book.

A secret drawer in his desk? Ludwig plucked the book out, wiping the dust off on his handkerchief and taking a closer look. He tentatively opened the inside cover, squinting at the thin feminine handwriting there: _Property of King Annelise Solberg._ He knew the name, had grown up seeing the elegant King Annelise in her visits to the military academy. She had trained there as a child, too, and her marriage with Queen Anton had been all the local gossips discussed, for they were the most successful royal couple in many years. Ludwig had looked forward to training under King Annelise, hearing her accounts of the battles she had fought with Clubs. The last civil war had taken place in Annelise's prime, right before she became King and helped make peace.

"Majesty!" An un-hooded attendant, her black hair flying wildly, tossed her head into the door. "I beg pardon, majesty, but the Jack is looking for you."

"Of course, I should be going." Ludwig tossed his cloak over his shoulder, pocketing the former king's notebook. "Thank you, I'll meet the others in the courtyard."

"Yes, Majesty," said the attendant with a bow, and Ludwig hurried off.

Toris met him just outside the double doors leading to the courtyard, and Ludwig accepted the weight of the small golden circlet.

"The people will be glad to see you," said Toris with a smile. He didn't mean Ludwig per say, rather the image of their new king – the dashing youth always dressed in thick red cloaks and with the light golden circlet. Now he was the subject of local gossip.

"Anything for the people," said Ludwig. He stepped into the light, Toris following behind to make sure the aforementioned red cloak didn't drag in the mud. He met Kiku at the entrance of the carriage.

"We'll be off as soon as Feliciano arrives," said Kiku. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm sorry, I was almost late," said Ludwig. "I couldn't find my baton, and I did want to bring it with me."

Kiku nodded understandingly.

"Ludwig! Kiku!" Out of breath, hair all askew, Feliciano came bounding towards them. Feliks hurried behind with Feliciano's circlet, insistent on handing it to the young Jack when he finally stopped moving. "Ve, sorry I'm late!"

"We haven't left yet," said Kiku. Feli laughed, making Ludwig smile in spite of himself.

"Oh, Ludwig, I found this on my dresser," said Feliciano, and out of his robes he pulled Ludwig's precious baton. "I thought you would like it, ve~!"

"Thank you, Feli, I was looking for it," said Ludwig. He followed them into the carriage, tucking the baton into the inner pocket of his coat.

Only then did he remember the tiny red leather book tucked into his robes. Ludwig considered opening the book up right away, showing his discovery to Kiku and Feliciano, but King Annelise had hidden that book for a reason, in a secret drawer no less.

Patting the coat pocket as if to set a reminder for himself, Ludwig turned his attention to Kiku and Feliciano and let his thoughts be occupied by the World Meeting.

XXX

According to Feliciano, the parade was a glimmering success, a sparkly beacon of hope for the people, the celebration to upend all other parties! Ludwig really was not an expert on sparkles and party-throwing, as his Jack was, but he did agree that the people did seem to get excited when their carriage rode by. He had done his share of waving up on the bench next to Kiku, and the people positively screamed with delight at the sight of Feliciano on the back of the carriage, waving and throwing out flowers. Kiku had praised the progression of the festivities, and Ludwig wasn't really an expert on that, either. He thought the parade had gone well, was that enough?

According to Francis, however, who was sweeping around the room with the air of a show dancer, it had been the most catastrophically beautiful affair to have happened in Diamonds since he had ascended the throne; still it was not enough. The King of Diamonds swept around tossing his hair and offering drinks as he allowed them to stroll through the magnificent summer palace.

_Instead_, Ludwig might add, of actually meeting. Only fifteen minutes had been allotted to introductions and social activity, and they had already spent twenty-seven. Before long, there wouldn't be any time to discuss the wool industry! Still, Francis flitted here and there, tapping them all on the shoulders and inviting them to hear the histories of _this_ tapestry and _that_ bench; meanwhile Lili hopped after her husband mostly to apologize to the increasingly tense diplomats. Ludwig wasn't one of those, of course – he wasn't tense at all. In fact, he was enjoying looking at the glass staircase _instead of discussing the wool industry._

Okay, maybe he was a little tense. Still, it was entirely justified. If they didn't get moving soon, the entire day's itinerary would be messed up. That didn't shine favorably on Diamonds, and Ludwig wanted this conference thing to go well for Francis, Lili, and Vash. The latter of the three was leading the party, and Ludwig was glad that he at least was intent on getting back to the council room. If Francis hadn't side-tracked them six million times, they would have been very successful.

"You look as though you aren't appreciating the architecture," said Roderich suddenly, materializing at Ludwig's side.

"I'm not giving you more money."

"Wh-what? I'm not – I'm not here about your money!" Ludwig gave the Jack of Clubs a sly glance. He began brushing his clothes down, as if they had been horribly ruffled. In the past three years, Roderich had made a personal visit to Hearts _ten_ times in order to request more financial aid to help their struggling economy. Frankly, Ludwig was sick of having conversations with him, as they usually revolved around money.

"I wanted to talk," said Roderich. "Make small talk, if you will."

"I'm familiar with the concept."

"Oh, you deceived me, then. You have been awfully standoffish today."

"I have not been…" Ludwig gritted his teeth, giving a second glance at the lavishly dressed Jack of Clubs. "We should be discussing the wool _industry_, not the wool _coats _the nobles like to wear."

"We aren't horribly off-schedule."

"We're fourteen minutes off-schedule, actually." Ludwig had to grit his teeth.

"Oh, lighten up. The tapestries are beautiful." Ludwig wasn't surprised to see Roderich so taken by the diamond-lined chandeliers and the real leopard fur lining the hallways. It was common knowledge that Clubs was falling into poverty, and had been falling for quite some time. And though you couldn't tell it from the fine silks Roderich was wearing, the monarchs were falling in wealth just as their people would. He knew that Clubs would do nothing to ruin this conference, but the temptation to just wrap himself up in one was in Roderich's eyes. It made Ludwig uneasy.

"How have you been?" said Roderich lightly. "I heard from Feliciano that the Harvest went well this year."

"It was excellent," said Ludwig. "He was the center of attention." _Just like he should be._ Both men glanced up at Feliciano, who was clinging to Kiku's arm and pointing out every little detail. He had already spent much of the morning re-connecting with the others – praising Arthur's new pocket-watch, helping Lili pick flowers for the centerpiece for that night's dinner, asking all the right questions about Yao's latest speech – and Ludwig could see the way Elizabeta kept dancing around asking Feliciano barely-too-personal questions. He had a funny feeling that if Liz didn't find her share of gossip from the Jack of Hearts, she would move on to Kiku – which was essentially why Ludwig had asked Feli to cling to Kiku instead of him this morning. That, and Feli would keep complaining that Ludwig was being too uptight – which in his defense, was untrue, as they were here on business and not to go gallivanting around the palace.

"And there you have it, the grand tour!" Francis clapped his hands together, turning towards them.

"We'll be going back to the meeting room now," said Vash, shooting a look at the King of Diamonds that very clearly said _don't you dare speak._ Ludwig couldn't remember being happier all morning. When they finally turned around, there was a skip in his step.

And dammit, Roderich was laughing at him.

"What?" said Ludwig.

"I apologize," said Roderich. "You look as though you just discovered a trove of treasure in your basement."

"At this rate, we'll only be twenty-two minutes behind schedule," said Ludwig. "I can make up for the lost time by shortening my presentation and making sure Feliciano keeps all comments under a minute."

"Relax," said Roderich. "We will have everything under control. I will say, though, that it will be good to finally sit down. It feels as though we have been walking for_ever._"

"_That's_ your complaint?"

"I see my lack of athleticism as a reflection of my artistic talent," said Roderich, turning his nose in the air.

"I didn't say anything about you being athletic or artistic," said Ludwig. "Besides, you're the Jack of Clubs – what do you need to be artistic for?"

Wrong thing to say, it seemed, for Roderich's eyes flashed.

"Be careful, Ludwig," said Roderich. "You are toeing a line, sir, and I would not advise you cross it. Art is the very soul of all royal culture! And you call yourself the King…"

"The good of the country is the soul of royal culture," said Ludwig. Roderich shot him one of the most disdainful looks Ludwig had ever received.

"I expect you are not the one pleasing the nobility, then," said Roderich. "You would fail miserably."

"Excuse me?" said Ludwig. "I please them very well – by keeping my military well-trained and my villages out of debt."

"Francis has done a masterful job at being a host," said Roderich. "A feat I doubt your business attitude would accomplish. What good is having diplomacy if you cannot have hospitality, hmm?"

"I – Hearts is very hospitable, thank you very much!" said Ludwig. Before he could continue his lecture, Feliciano slipped between them, his hands locking evenly around Ludwig's broad forearm and Roderich's silk-clad one.

"Ludwig, Roderich, why are we raising our voices?" said Feli, his smile wide. "Did you see the chandelier in the atrium? We should get one, Ludwig!"

"I doubt something of that size would be functional…"

"I suppose you're right," said Feli thoughtfully. "Our palace is not designed for that sort of light refraction. The effect would be all wrong."

"Feliciano, tell me," said Roderich, trying unsuccessfully to loosen Feli's hold without seeming impolite. "How do you host guests?"

"With wine," said Feliciano. "Nobles love wine." He laughed. "Of course, we provide them the finest beds we can offer, and a grand feast! At the feast there is dancing, and music, and we are sure to give them a tour of the gardens and the gallery. They've come to discuss business, but that doesn't mean they can't enjoy themselves, right?"

Roderich shot Ludwig a nasty smirk, and Ludwig felt himself seething; for Feliciano's sake, he dropped the argument. Fine, so maybe he wasn't the loosest or most entertaining king. That didn't matter – he was King of Hearts, and he was the best choice for the position. Gilbert wouldn't have given it to him, if he hadn't been the right choice. No matter what Roderich said. Besides, he had Feliciano, who made up for everything he did incorrectly.

They moved into the meeting room _finally_, and Ludwig was the first to his seat. He checked his pocket-watch. Twenty-one minutes behind schedule, not as bad as it could have been. He marked this on the top corner of his agenda. Kiku slid into the seat beside him.

"Are you preparing?" said Kiku. "I didn't think there was much left to worry about."

"We are behind schedule," said Ludwig, his pen wavering from the amount of pressure he was putting on it. "I must find a way to make up for lost time."

"Ah, I believe Vash will handle it," said Kiku hesitantly. "You should not worry, Ludwig. It will work out."

"I like to be punctual," said Ludwig.

"And you're very good at it," said Kiku. "Perhaps you are a little wound up over this?"

"I'm not uptight, I'm not wound up," said Ludwig. He tossed his pen down, worried it would break through the paper. As it was, there was a rather large and ungainly splotch of ink instead of a letter. That would bother him, later.

"I think you are tense," said Kiku. "Maybe it has nothing to do with the meeting, but I think you would like things to be different than how they are now. Am I wrong?"

"Kiku, you don't know what you're talking about." Ludwig kneaded his forehead.

"Perhaps you can share?"

"Dammit, vhat I'm saying is zat nothing is wrong!" The frustrated, accented words slipped out at the very moment the entire room got quiet, and for a moment, Ludwig heard only his voice against the very still silence. Kiku at once reverted to his typical mode – moving back in his chair, pretending that he didn't exist. For once, the trick worked, for Ludwig found that they were all staring at him.

"Is everything alright, _mon ami?_" asked Francis. Ludwig gripped his pen tightly in his hand.

"I would like to get started, if that's all right," he said. Accent-free again, and quieter, entirely composed. He would not let this best him.

"If you're done with your marriage issues, we will," said Vash. He fixed Ludwig with a curious look, reminding Ludwig of how much Vash knew. By a mistake made long ago, Vash had discovered Ludwig and Feliciano participating in…er…improper behavior for a then-engaged man.

"There's no problem," repeated Ludwig. He could feel his cheeks burning bright red, and as Francis hesitantly called the meeting to order, Ludwig felt the pen snap in his fingers. When Ludwig looked down at his hands, he sighed to see them covered in ink.

The first few hours of the meeting did not improve Ludwig's mood. Instead of returning to the agenda, they deviated further from it, talking more about petty issues than real issues that mattered. Ludwig did his best to get them further and further back to the posted agenda – he even cut five minutes out of his presentation on Hearts military power, but all the others were interested in was petty gossip. Somehow, Liz had managed to ask distant questions that insinuated pregnancy to Lili – in accordance with the latest inter-kingdom rumors. A few of the nobles had been more interested in another rumor mill surrounding Alfred and Arthur. _Six _was the current tally for congratulations on the harvest festival, and Feli had taken them graciously; normally, Ludwig would want this type of praise, but he had not come all the way to Paris to make small talk instead of work on economics and politics!

When they broke for snacks, Ludwig was one of the first to leave the room, although Feli and Kiku caught up to him in the hallway.

"Where are you going?" said Feliciano, tugging on Ludwig.

"There's ink on my hand," said Ludwig, showing him his mostly-blue fingers. "I should wash it off."

"Ludwig," said Kiku. "Ludwig, I am sorry for offending you."

"You didn't offend me," said Ludwig. He heaved a sigh, turning back towards his friends. There was no use running from them. "I think the pressure of today is getting to me."

"What pressure?" Feliciano asked. "Ve, these people are our friends!"

"They expect a lot of us," said Kiku quietly. Ludwig nodded.

"They expect everything from me," said Ludwig. He leaned against the wall, trying to resist the urge to put his head in his hands and block Kiku and Feli out. "I have to make this day go perfectly, and so far, everything is off."

"The responsibility isn't just on you," said Kiku. Ludwig laughed. There was a look on Kiku's face that Ludwig considered unreadable – something desperate, but submissive, because Kiku could never be anything _but_ submissive.

"Of course it is," said Ludwig. At their stunned faces, he balled his hands into fists, letting one slam into the hard stone-wall behind him. "Feliciano is the one that entertains, and I am the one who makes decisions. And though I don't doubt your intelligence, Kiku, all of those Hearts-born diplomats in there _do_. So _yes_, it is all on me."

"I'm not just a street performer," said Feliciano coldly. "Ludwig, ve, how could you be so mean?"

"Feli –" But before Ludwig could get out another word, Feliciano had turned on his heel and was making his way towards the meeting room again, little fists at his sides. Ludwig cursed, slamming his head into the stone panels behind him.

"I didn't mean it like that," said Ludwig. He turned to look at Kiku. "You can see what I mean, can't you?"

"No," said Kiku. "I don't know what you mean at all."

"Those nobles in there," said Ludwig. "They all look to me now."

"They look to us."

"Tell me honestly, do you believe that?" said Ludwig. He cast his husband a despairing look, and Kiku stared right back. Ludwig hadn't seen this sort of look in Kiku's face, either. He was disgruntled, which was certainly a step up from the normal calm that radiated Kiku's being.

"Perhaps it hasn't occurred to you that this meeting means a lot to me as well," said Kiku. "I will not stand aside because some of the nobility is – "

"Face it, Kiku, they're never going to think of you any differently," said Ludwig. How could Kiku be so un-relenting to the truth? There was no dodging the subject anymore. He had seen all the nobility gossip, their eyes accusing, their words sharp as swords. _Outsider. Foreigner._ How could Kiku ever be anything different to them? No matter how much Kiku was worth to Hearts, he would always be second rate to the nobles. There was no use batting around the subject any longer.

"Are you sure you are not the one making the judgment?" said Kiku. Ludwig opened his mouth to speak, but Kiku's eyes flashed dangerously. "We had best return to the meeting."

They walked in silence on their way back. Ludwig could see how Kiku seethed, but he wasn't going to apologize for his honesty. The way Kiku fumed, so silent and determined not to stand up for himself, it was no wonder he let the others walk all over him like this. It had been three years since Ludwig had last seen Kiku be anything more than the quiet Queen of Hearts, the background member of their trio, the one that somehow attracted all eyes but no respect. He felt bad for Kiku, personally, but it was his own fault. It was his own fault.

Sadiq called his name. Ludwig turned to the Foreign Minister, who had been speaking to Arthur and Matthew, Foreign Minister of Spades.

"You seem a little uptight today," said Sadiq, crossing his arms. Ludwig's hands were so far in fists that his neatly cut fingernails dug into his palms.

"I am not uptight." He nearly spat out the words. He could feel Arthur's sudden judgmental gaze on him, and it made Ludwig even angrier.

"How about you take a break?" said Sadiq. "Let Kiku and I handle things for a few minutes. Take a walk."

"I just had a walk," said Ludwig. "I'm fine."

"No, you aren't," said Sadiq. "Kiku and I can handle the discussion, right?" He clapped Kiku on the shoulder. Not looking Ludwig in the face, Kiku nodded.

"You need me," said Ludwig. "The Hearts representatives will be looking for me."

"They'll make do with two of their monarchs," said Sadiq. "Look, Lud, majesty, nothing against you. Still, you need a break. You look like you're about to cleave the entire castle in half."

"I'm fine," said Ludwig. "Besides, Kiku is too submissive to everyone else's ideas to actually put something new on the table."

Their tense silence could have been cut like a knife. Kiku mumbled something and ducked into the meeting room under Sadiq's arm. At the sight of everyone rushing in the doors, Sadiq pulled Ludwig forcibly aside by his elbow.

"Everything okay, Ludwig?" said Arthur as he passed. Ludwig could see the rise of the Queen of Spades' particularly bushy eyebrows, and it made him want to scream and perhaps use his fist to show Arthur who was okay and who was not.

"You take a minute and think," said Sadiq. "I'll come get you in a few, once you've calmed down a bit."

Sadiq was the last one in the room, and he shut the door in Ludwig's face.

Ludwig stared at the closed door for several minutes, and then he uncomprehendingly backed up, away from it. Some of the panic and rage in his chest died down as he stood there, between two tapestries displaying the last two crowning ceremonies. He could remember the terrible look on Feliciano's face, the resentment coming off Kiku in waves. Perhaps he had chosen his words poorly, but it wasn't as though he was _wrong._ Frankly, Ludwig was tired of keeping his opinions on his fellows' incompetent points to himself.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate Feliciano and Kiku. He did. He thought they made up for everything he did improperly, all of the flair and personality he didn't really show. Still. Why couldn't they admit that there were some parts of being a ruler that _Ludwig_ had to handle himself?

He shouldered past two rows of six hooded attendants as he moved towards the more open area of the castle, where he could catch some fresh air.

The others would be discussing agricultural trade. Ludwig had heard speculation about Clubs installing a protective tariff, which didn't sit well with him. He had plenty of points as to why the tariff was a bad idea, and now he wasn't even able to share them. It would be down to Kiku, and Kiku would no doubt subtly drop hints and then give up. They needed him in that room! Ludwig spun around, fully intending to come back towards the meeting and take his rightful place. It wasn't as if they could lock him out, anyways. He was the King of Hearts!

He stood aside to allow six attendants pushing a cart to pass, and then he started in the other direction. Suddenly, he heard yelling.

Breaking into a spring, Ludwig tore up the hallway towards the meeting room, meeting Feliciano just outside the doorway. The Jack of Heart clung to Ludwig's forearms, his amber eyes wide as saucers. All Ludwig could hear was yelling from inside, and then Alfred burst out, Arthur on his toes.

"Yao!" cried Alfred. "Yao, where are you?"

"Feli, what happened?" said Ludwig. He grabbed the side of Bella's arm as she went running out. "Bella, explain."

"We were talking about the tariff," said Bella. "Then all the lights went out. There was a yell, and when the lights went back on, Yao and Kiku were gone."

Ludwig's blood went cold.

"Kiku…" he said, slowly processing it.

"They've been kidnapped!" cried Alfred, turning with an angry look to the now-emerging Diamonds monarchs.

"I will have the Royal Guard search the ground," said Vash, adjusting his cloak as he stormed down the hallway. "We will find Yao and Kiku, even if we have to turn this entire palace upside-down."

Ludwig stood there as they rushed around, his throat going dry as he recalled Kiku's eyes dropping to the floor, his discomfort tangible. He winced at the memory of his own words – Ludwig had suddenly never hated himself more passionately.

They had better find Kiku. Ludwig would never forgive himself if the last memory he had of his husband was of Kiku taking insult after insult, and of Ludwig discounting everything Kiku had tried to be.

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**Oh, no! Kiku has been kidnapped! And there's nothing like a quasi-racist Luddy to get things spicy. If they didn't already, the others are positive that Ludwig and Kiku need marriage counseling. Let's be honest, Ludwig's fidelity to Kiku is pretty questionable. Wink wink. See what I did there? Also, sorry the diaries scene was so short. Don't forget about that discovery, though...**

**Anyways, next chapter will return to Kiku's POV - and Yao, the fourth main character of this story! I know, right? Wow, this is going to be so exciting. I'm so ready. Expect another three chapters from me within the month! Granted, this fic takes a lot longer to write than Elemental because 1) Elemental has shorter chapters, 2) Elemental requires a lot less research and plotting, and 3) Elemental is six times less formal of a voice, so that's easier as well. Those are my excuses, but it doesn't matter. We WILL get to Chapter 7 by December!**

**If you liked this chapter, please leave a review, and don't forget to favorite/follow/recommend to people! Thanks for reading, everyone!**

**~Elsi**


	4. Chapter 4: The Past Collides

**Ooooh, plot abounds in this chapter of Fidelity. Have fun reading!**

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Chapter 4: The Past Collides

Dull orange-tinted light streamed in narrow rows over Kiku's head, crisscrossing lines of reflecting candlelight that cleared as his eyes slowly opened. Blackened stones were wreathed in pools of the light or varying degrees of shadows, and a steady _drip, drip_ of water ran down the far wall and into the darkest part of the tiny room. Kiku sat up, dizzy, and glanced around the small stone room. Two walls were of perfect stone, and the one to his left was…iron bars?

Parisian tapestries, splotchy writing on notes, _too submissive,_ Feliciano for once hiding his tears, _you don't know what you're talking about_, lights flickering above Arthur's head before going out, two hands around his throat, choking, descending, crying out, reaching for Ludwig _but Ludwig wasn't there_…

Startled gasps pushed their way out of Kiku's throat, and he pressed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets, hoping to block out the screaming and the horrific feeling of asphyxiation. It was a bad dream. It was a dream. He would wake up to golden, diamond-imprinted sheets, and the light would be a snap of his fingers away, and Niran would walk in with Parisian toast on a glass platter.

He opened his eyes and swam in the shadows for a moment. Nothing changed.

"Kiku, at last."

Kiku spun around, recognizing the voice and panicking. He was staring through another set of iron bars, and as the candlelight cleared and his eyes adjusted to the darkness again, Kiku couldn't help but pause. His entire mind went blank.

"Stop staring," said Yao, wrapping his arms around his bare chest. He kicked Kiku the pile of dirty blue-and-black robes. "Put that on."

"What?" said Kiku, unable to process that the Jack of Spades was standing in his underwear and shoving his clothes at Kiku.

"Just do it," said Yao. "We don't have much time."

His eyes glanced nervously down the hallway. Yao hissed unintelligibly, and Kiku scrambled to his knees to gather the clothes in a ball. He didn't know what was going on, but at least Yao had been at the Parisian conference.

As he pulled on the tunic that smelled remarkably of Yao and Spades lilacs, Kiku stopped. What if _Yao_ had been the one to strangle him in the conference room? He looked up while pulling Yao's belt tight over his waist, to see that Yao was fiddling with something on the ground.

"Yao?" said Kiku. Yao glanced over for a few seconds.

"You don't take directions well, do you?" said Yao. "Get dressed. Give me your stuff."

Hesitant at first, Kiku slid his discarded things across the row of iron bars. At once Yao bent over towards them, his long hair falling over his shoulders. Kiku paused, trying to tighten the belt some more. He had only ever seen Yao with his hair up. When it was down, it was…nice, in some way. Yao glanced up, his brown eyes inquiring and his mouth drawn in a tight line. With his hair loosed of its ponytail, long and rich around his shoulders, he looked like some sort of ancient warrior king, wild and free, heroic and lost to history.

"What?" said Yao. Kiku hurriedly glanced away, putting Yao's boots on. He saw Yao stand up out of the corner of his eye and saw the Spades monarch tugging Kiku's tunic over his shoulders, fastening the buttons on the vest. Frowning, Yao reached into Kiku's pocket.

"Is this yours?" He tossed Kiku the item, and Kiku caught it and peered down into the palms of his hands and stared at the Joker's magic dice.

"That reminds me," said Yao. He walked over to the far side of the room and picked up something that gleamed. After a second, Kiku identified the object as a knife. Kiku jumped – had Yao been keeping it in his boot or something? They had been kidnapped, so how had they allowed the Jack of Spades to hold onto a knife? These questions running through his head, Kiku didn't even think about why Yao was holding the knife, staring at his own reflection in the smooth blade, pulling his hair over his shoulder. Then, before Kiku could even reach out a hand and protest, the knife revolved in a quick motion, and Yao held a fistful of his own raven locks.

The strangled noise came out of Kiku's mouth without even thinking about it. Yao walked to the far side of their cells and sprinkled his lost hair into the walkway, on top of layers of thin straw and rat feces. Kiku sat in a heap as Yao turned back, his face even more set, his jaw surprisingly angular without the long hair hiding his features.

"What…what…?" The words wouldn't come out as anything more than a startled gasp. Without speaking, Yao came and sat facing Kiku on the other side of the bars, putting an elbow on his knees. The two men stared at each other for a while, Kiku lost in the intense concentration of Yao's eyes and the new angles of his face formerly unseen.

"This would never have worked with, say, Arthur," said Yao.

"What would never have –" Kiku didn't need to say anything further, for Yao was sitting there wearing a red-lined shirt and a massive heart on his left vest pocket, and here Kiku was sitting in boots marked with spades. "Why are you…?"

"It is the duty of the Jack to protect the King and Queen," said Yao. "I thought you knew your history?"

"No, you can't do this," said Kiku. He hastened with the belt.

"It's a little too late for you to back out of something this time," said Yao, spinning away from Kiku. He faced the front wall, giving Kiku a good look at how his hair now fell to the top of his neck. And Kiku swallowed, knowing that he was right.

"What happened?" said Kiku, giving up his protests and leaning his side against the bars dividing them. Yao shot him a look out of the corner of his eye.

"No idea," said Yao. "We were in the council room, listening to Alfred make a fool out of himself, and an attendant offered me water. Next thing I know, the lights are off and somebody is slamming me into the ground. I woke up here."

Kiku reached up to his throat, running his fingers over the surprisingly smooth skin. Seeing his reaction, his wide-eyed panic, Yao turned again.

"The bruises will fade," said Yao. "It's not that bad."

"How long do you think we've been knocked out?" said Kiku.

"Hard to tell. Anywhere from a few hours to a day, max."

"Where do you think we are?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Yao glared at him. "Do you think at all, or do you just ask questions and ride someone else's opinions?"

_Kiku is too submissive to everyone else's ideas to actually put something new on the table. _Ludwig's words stung.

"Shut up." Yao raised his eyebrows at the words.

"There's the fire in you," he said. "They said you did well in Berlin, but I've never seen it myself."

"What are you trying to do?" said Kiku, the accusation coming forth before he could even process what was happening. The two men stared at each other, wariness passing between brown eyes. Kiku had never accused anyone of anything without being heavily influenced. Did this kidnapping count as a strong influence?

Before Kiku could apologize or push further, the sound of keys clinking together caught his attention, and he stood up as three young men appeared in the shadows outside their row of cells. They wore their hair in identical high ponytails, and each one had a rusty breastplate fastened insecurely to their chests. Their boots were spotted with grime, and there was a bruise on one of their faces, right on the cheek. Another of the guard had a horizontal scar across his nose.

"He will see you now," said one of the guards, rustling with the keys. Kiku made his way to the door, and Cheek-Bruise moved forward to clasp a metal ring around Kiku's wrists. Scar-Nose collected Yao, nearly picking him up from the ground.

"Keep in line, and don't protest," said Keys, leading them up the hallway and away from the cells. Kiku could feel the magic dice bouncing around in his pocket, and he glanced at Yao, who was straight-faced as he marched in line. Scar-Nose and Cheek-Bruise nervously walked behind them, hands resting on the long daggers hanging from their belts.

They walked down the hallway, past empty cells that smelled like decay and age-old mold. The candles flitted above their heads in torch-beams, shifting and warping with every step they took. At the end of the hallway, there was a spiral staircase, and Kiku ascended wordlessly, his eyes fixed on the bottom dungeon floor as it moved slowly away. They came to a platform. The platform began another hallway, one somehow familiar. That hallway twisted to give way to one that opened to the outside. The grey wind moved with them as they moved through the open-air corridor, whispering through torn banners and passing over the crumbling wooden columns.

What had happened here? Kiku caught a glimpse of the courtyard down below, of white-wooded trees that stood dead, of the light dusting of greying flower petals on the cracked pale stones. He squinted, making out a symbol in the center of the clearing, but before he could identify it, Keys had moved to his side and put a block between Kiku and his view.

"Eyes ahead, sir Jack," he said. Kiku, startled, sank back. He kept his eyes trained ahead after that, at the wooden archways fastening over his head, at the strange red doors open ahead of them. He still couldn't place their location, but Yao had gotten very quiet, and Kiku realized that his friend had learned something as to their predicament. He tried to read the look on the Spades monarch's face, but Yao was stone-still.

As they passed through a second set of red doors, Kiku looked up between Keys and Scar-Nose at the emblem on the doorway. There, though rusted and falling, was the dragon devouring the stars, the red circle encompassing dragon and sky alike. And Kiku's blood ran cold as memories ran through his head, memories he had long ago discarded – of being pulled by his hands through low-hanging ceilings and rounded windows as the world was lit up around them, as metal clashed with the sounds of gentle explosions, and stone shattered along with wood in Kiku's periphery, and someone screamed, and another person wrapped a cloak around his shoulders and picked him up, and as he looked back, he could see a raven-haired woman on her knees, one hand reaching out before she fell to the floor, and the massive dragon-sky emblem banner rippled down between Kiku and the woman and stayed there, burning at the edges, until he was out of view.

His hands shook. Then he stood in a room, with only one occupant: a man, his silhouette strong against the early morning fog, wrapped in a dragon-emblem cloak. As he turned, Kiku could make out the lines in his face, earnest and still, and the tired dark bags under his narrow eyes. He looked neat, regal for the light scruff around his chin, and he carried himself much as Ludwig had just after Berlin three years ago – as a royal scarred by a recent defeat.

"Sir, I've brought them."

The room, like the others, showed sign of disuse – the round window was broken, and the couch was missing one of the arms, but the stone table in the center of the room was still well, as were the gold-lined pillows surrounding it.

"Queen Kiku, Jack Yao," said the man at the window. "Welcome home."

They didn't move – how could they? – as their host moved towards them, extending a hand. He lifted a light-struck vase of flowers in the center of the room. Kiku watched his thick fingers remove two blue flowers, and then the man turned in his heavy dragon-marked cloak and approached.

"Thank you, Captain. You can leave us."

"But sir – "

"It's quite alright," said the dragon-cloak man, observing the two flowers as he twirled them lightly between his palms. He lifted dark chestnut eyes, familiar somehow, and Kiku stared, entranced. He barely heard the door close, but he saw the man drift towards him, every step worth a thousand golden coins. Kiku had been handling the rich for three years now, but this was a different kind of step, a different sort of posture. Shoulders back, face lined with both age and war, a regal man. No – a _royal_ man, essentially the Eastern equivalent of Ludwig. Different, somehow. Fallen. Yes. Fallen.

One flower was in each hand as their captor approached them. He offered the flowers to Yao and Kiku, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder, forgetting for a moment that they were supposed to be one another. The flowers were made of paper.

"A gift, as welcome," said the man. Kiku wasn't listening anymore. His heart beat out a rhythm that perpetuated the relative still of the room. He stared down at those blue petals as a buzzing feeling took over his mind, drawing everything a blank, everything except memories –

A warm hand closing over his, a pair of smiling eyes connected to a second hand connected to the stem of a purple paper rose, and Kiku grabbed the flower to his chest. He was running, two paper petals in his hands, tears flowing, looking down at the new paper-cut on his pinky, finally just letting go and watching the flowers drop to the ground and in a puddle where they instantly dissolved, crinkling and fading into a translucent rose stain, like a blood splash, only deeper, not caused by bombs but by words solidified into paper daggers. Kneeling at the end of all things, torn apart like the wreckage of a country on the road behind him, and a silver-and-red-hand clasped on his shoulder, and he looked up into the ash-smudged features of his father, who was leaning forward with a single box in his hands. _Take this._ It was a flower, a once-origami rose his father told him had been preserved by an ancient art.

Yao's rapid movement was the only thing strong enough to break the spell on Kiku, and suddenly one of Yao's hands had shoved Kiku aside, and then the Jack of Spades had thrown himself towards their captor, his drawn knife in his hand. Kiku looked up, almost ready to cry out, but the man in the dragon cloak reached a thick arm up to stop Yao.

"You're a fool, Mister Wang," said the man in the dragon cloak, and another slam of his knee into Yao's stomach made the Jack of Spades gasp for air and collapse into a ball at the feet of this new threat. The dagger fell from his hands, dug itself into the carpet. Kiku felt his own feet moving without his permission, rushing forward. He tossed an arm over Yao and looked up at the man in the dragon cloak, who stood observing the knife with the cold grey sunlight on his back, casting his shadow onto the ground over Kiku's shoulder.

"What do you want from us?" said Kiku. Yao shook him off, scrambling to his feet and drawing his hands into tight fists. Slowly, Kiku stood as well. His heart was pounding, but he remembered back to Berlin, the Berlin Conference three years ago. If he could lie their way out of this situation, he would not hesitate to do it.

"This is a nice knife," said the man, running a scar-divided thumb over the small carved heart in the black hilt of Yao's knife. "I do apologize for the uncomfortable position you have been in for the past day."

"What do you want from us?" said Kiku. "Where are we?"

He knew the answer to that question, and so did Yao. Yao's eyes flitted shut, blocking out the scenery. Kiku swallowed and pressed on, taking a step closer to the man in the dragon cloak.

"Don't you recognize it, Kiku?" said the man, and his features visibly tightened. He strained forward without moving, caught in an invisible strain Kiku had trouble recognizing. The man cast a hand around the room, suddenly less composed than he had been. "The couch? The flowers? The window?"

"No," said Yao. "I don't. Please, explain."

"Oh, you can drop the act, dearest Master Wang," said their host, dropping into a half-bow. He took a tentative step forward. "There is no way I would confuse the two of you."

"Have we met?" said Kiku, now wary of the desperation in those chestnut eyes. Yao took three steps, putting a barrier between Kiku and the man in the dragon cloak.

"You will explain everything, and you will not touch him." Kiku was appalled at the rage in Yao's stance and the quiver he fought unsuccessfully to steady. The last time he had spoken to Yao, there had been no friendship to speak of between them. Yao and Kiku never visited the other on a mission – Feliciano and Alfred were always sent instead. Why was Yao so…so…upset all of a sudden?

"Don't be afraid," said the man in the dragon cloak. "Your mother used to read you stories in this room. You loved the ones about the Western prince and the dragon the best. I used to watch you from my tower, when your mother thought I had more important business to be after."

Kiku's blood ran cold, and he peered over Yao's shoulder. The Jack of Spades was staring at him, too shocked to do any more protecting for the moment.

"You knew my mother?" he said, his voice cracked and uneven. He hardly recognized this part of his voice. Now that the evidence was there, he looked around the room – at the thin brown carpet beneath his feet, at the patterns the grey light made against the hard interior of the room, at the collapsed bookshelf in the corner and the thin stone table, at the fluffy yellow pillows. Before his eyes, a tool of his imagination but feeling like much more, his younger self ran and played, giggling at those warm hands, at those smiling eyes.

But the memory was gone within a moment. Kiku wondered if it was a memory at all, or if it was simply a recollection of an imagined past. He stood before this strange man, who kept looking at him as if he were a ghost, one that had vanished in the middle of the night. Kiku could place the face now, could place the stern scruff and the chestnut eyes, could recognize the broad shoulders clad in the heavy, scarlet cloak, and he shrank away, recalling a man draped in evening sunlight or the sepia of faded memory standing above him, frowning, and then passing by without so much as a greeting.

"You…" Kiku couldn't decide if the shivering tone was his own. It felt like something he would never say, be to afraid to say. Was he already acting for the situation? It couldn't be. A dark, unsettled feeling rested in his chest and would not be dislodged. The gentlest of smiles, out of place on this warrior's face, brought the memory into stark reality. Kiku was staring at this man, unsure of what he would say next.

"It's me, Kiku," said the man. "General Takehiko. I was meant to marry your mother."

"Kiku…" said Yao, his hand resting on Kiku's shoulder. Kiku ignored even that contact, moving forward. Takehiko didn't move. Faintly, Kiku felt the recognition stir, a beast wakened by the beckoning of thick fingers much like these. It took a moment, but even though Kiku could place nothing else, the name rose on his tongue like vomit.

"Hiko-sama?" It was the voice of a child, the child Kiku had once been, the one who played in this room and looked at the scary general in the courtyard. Takehiko looked as if he had never been happier, and the smile that burst across his face stopped Kiku's immediate worries.

"That's right," said Takehiko, his eyes suddenly wet. He stared at Kiku as if staring at a reincarnation. "That's right. That's right."

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**They're back in the Far East. In case you didn't guess.**

**Oh, right, I should be saying GAAAAASP! What's going on with Kiku's mother? Who is this Hiko-sama person? The plot thickens. Next chapter will thicken the plot SOME MORE by switching back to Ludwig and the new issue at hand - finding their two missing monarchs.**

**Also, RIP Yao's beautiful long hair. I'm sad that it's gone. *tears***

**If you liked this chapter or have anything you would like me to know, please submit a review! I would love to hear from you, even if it's just a "good job!" or a "you suck." I love that stuff ;)**

**Thanks, everyone! More coming soon!**

**~Elsi**


	5. Chapter 5: Feliciano's Decision

**Hello, all! I'm back! Here's...well, it isn't the best chapter I've ever written, but I'm partial to the first scene. I think you'll like it. Hopefully. **

**New characters! A few that have been super overdue in this story...wow...**

**Really obvious hint: this chapter contains mature language.**

**I don't own any of these lovely characters!**

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Chapter 5: Feliciano's Decision

In the evening, while Alfred paced in circles and Arthur sipped his way through three kettles of tea, while Vash stormed back and forth through the library to give reports and order others around, Ludwig mused in an armchair, and Feliciano sat without saying much at the fire, his knees pulled up to his chest, staring into the flames.

Vash came in with Francis around eleven. Most of the others, Lili included (at the request of her husband and brother only), had retired earlier in the evening. Francis was the first to clap Alfred on the shoulder. The usually vibrant King of Diamonds struggled for words. Arthur put down his teacup.

"You can't find them, can you?"

"It seems not," said Francis. "We have sent two teams of knights after our two leads. If they do not return with any news, we will send another party in the morning."

"What are our leads?" said Alfred. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Reports say that a shipment of silks was scheduled to leave port this afternoon, but we found the silk merchant claiming his merchandise had been dumped into the harbor," said Vash. "And a noble's carriage left shortly after the event.

"We've closed down the city, but our city guard has turned out nothing."

"The ship," said Alfred. "Where is it going?"

"Saharan Confederation," said Vash. "This particular merchant makes a round in the northern countries this time of year."

"Sahara!" said Feliciano, his big eyes wide. "That's so far…"

"And the carriage?"

"From what we can tell, the direction of Hearts, although they may have doubled around," said Vash. "It's the more convincing lead."

"We are terribly sorry, _mes amis_," said Francis, lifting his arms as if he was trying to offer them something he no longer had. "It was never meant to turn out this way."

"Well, surely something is going to be done about – " Alfred started angrily. Arthur reached up and put a hand on his husband's shoulder.

"We understand," said Arthur. "You're doing all you can. Whoever did this had a very complex plan."

"We won't rest until all returns to normal," said Vash.

"What about the conference?" They glanced at Ludwig as he spoke. Shifting in his chair, Ludwig stared at them. "Are we going to continue it?"

"How could you want to?" said Feliciano into the fire. Ludwig glanced at the Jack of Hearts. Feliciano didn't look back.

"It's an important event," said Ludwig. "There are plenty of issues at hand."

Feliciano finally glanced up, turning his big eyes to the other monarchs in the room.

"Um…we'll give you a moment," said Francis, taking Vash's arm. The Jack of Diamonds shrugged his co-ruler off, but proceeded nonetheless.

"We need to do something!" said Alfred. "This isn't the time for – "

"Come on, moron," said Arthur, and he went on to pull Alfred from the room.

Feliciano looked back into the fire.

"What is it?" said Ludwig.

"How could you want to continue the conference?"

"It's a worldwide conference. If we don't take this chance to settle all matters, we could be lost in a year!"

"Don't we need Kiku?"

Ludwig didn't answer, hearing the barb in the question. Feliciano turned towards him and sat cross-legged, his face impossible to read due to the fire lighting his back.

"Ve, Ludwig? Do you think we're useless?"

"I never said that."

"You said lots of other things."

"I didn't mean them."

"Do you think Kiku knows that?"

"I don't know!" Ludwig stood up from his seat, his hands closing into fists, his cloak falling from his shoulders. Feliciano watched the fabric fall to the ground. "Look, do you not think I'm upset? I didn't vant Kiku to disappear, especially not after I vas so cruel." He could feel his shoulders shaking. Feliciano stood up.

"Maybe you're right," said Feliciano. "Ve, it's not as if you had no reason to say the things you did. You've always been the strong one, ve~!"

Ludwig stood, wordless. He thought Feliciano was smiling, but maybe he was crying.

"We'll find them," said Ludwig. "And I want to apologize to Kiku the moment I see him."

"Mmm," said Feliciano. "We'll find them."

He took his leave. Ludwig sat back down in the chair, and when the others came in to discuss what would happen the next day, none of them bothered to point out that Ludwig's cloak lay crumpled on the ground, even when Ludwig left it there, and the servants collected it as they put out the fire.

Feliciano wasn't at breakfast. The convention was to go on as planned, but when Feliciano didn't show up even by lunch, Ludwig asked Sadiq for a cover and slipped up to his room. He called Toris, who hadn't seen sight of Feliciano or even Feliks that day. Ludwig rapped on Feli's door.

There was no response. He had an attendant open the door, and crept in, cautious, waiting for Feliciano to come bustling towards him in a rush, crying his apologies about not being on time. It would have been too expected.

There was a note on the made bed.

_Ludwig~_

_ Please don't be too angry with me. I couldn't stay, not when you want to take the burden of Kiku and the conference all by yourself. You'll see. I can make decisions, too._

_ All my love,_

_ Feliciano_

The note crumpled in Ludwig's hand. When Toris came to find him, all in a stutter that Sadiq had gotten to yelling for Ludwig to return, he was still standing there, gripping the note, which had partially blotted as Ludwig read it, and read it, and read it, until it was engrained in his memory, stuck on his heart as the reminder of what his words had done, what he could do.

XXX

There was no use staying anymore. Ludwig told Sadiq he would have to be the voice of Hearts and, taking only Toris with him, rushed off to into the morning. They rode for Hearts at a pace barely relaxed enough for the horses not to collapse at the end of the night. Lars met them at the Diamonds-Heart border with the greatest news Ludwig had heard in quite a while.

The Captain of the Royal Guard had seen Feli just a day earlier. That meant that Ludwig and Toris were on the right path.

"He was heading east," said Lars. "He wouldn't tell me where he was going, but it didn't seem like Clubs."

"East?" said Ludwig.

"South-east, more accurately," said Lars.

"With permission, majesty," said Toris, and Ludwig glanced back at his attendant. The brunette nodded carefully, measuring his words. "Isn't Queen Kiku from the east?"

"What does that matter? He's from Hearts now." Ludwig had been preparing the words ever since Kiku had left. He didn't imagine the person he would be using them on would be Toris.

"That's not what I mean," said Toris. "East Hearts."

He was right.

"He thinks there will be a clue to finding Kiku at Kiku's old house," said Ludwig. "Why take a southern route? Kiku's old residence was on the northern end of…"

_Feliciano is from Southeast Hearts._

They had a course.

He tried to avoid the stares of the Hearts nobility as he rode through the paved streets of Florence, his horse's hooves clipping lightly on the faded cobblestones. Ludwig showed up at the pale stone building. Toris took his horse. Slipping off one black glove, Ludwig reached up, almost daring to be hesitant, and knocked on the door.

He waited on the doormat for several seconds, until at last, the door swung open. The man that opened it came ready with a smile so wide he almost shut his eyes. Upon realizing exactly who stood on his doormat, however, the man stepped back, and the smile vanished. Bright green eyes sparkled back at Ludwig, and then the man was on his knees.

"Your majesty!" he cried.

"Er…please, don't kneel," said Ludwig. The young man got to his feet, still staring. "I've come on behalf of Jack Feliciano."

"Yes, I expected so," said the man. "Please, come in. Welcome to Vargas Masonry. I'm Antonio!"

"Is there a place we can put the horses?" said Ludwig, gesturing back at Toris, who lingered in the street holding the horses out of the path of passerby. Antonio nodded fervently and, murmuring nonsense words, took the reins of the horses from Toris.

He returned before Ludwig had gotten into the front hall. He was stopped at first by the tall armoire in the first doorway, and the small painting on the wall in the entry hallway. The portrait was labeled _Lovino and Feliciano,_ ages 8 and 5. The two boys in the portrait were smiling, although the older boy looked as if he would rather be anywhere else. Feliciano looked the same way, but with Feliciano, you couldn't tell unless – well, unless you were Ludwig, really.

Antonio rejoined them in the foyer.

"Oh, the little majesty was always smiling," he said. "Isn't it a lovely portrait? Madame Vargas commissioned it of my father."

"Quite lovely," said Ludwig. He was entranced in the visual of a child Feliciano. That vibrant smile, those lovely auburn eyes…he had always been the same. As a child, his innocence compounded. Ludwig was rather glad he had the adult Feliciano in his life, though – not just because at times it seemed Ludwig was the innocent one in their relationship.

He studied the older brother, Lovino, in the portrait for a few seconds longer before turning and following the bustling Antonio down the hall. The workshop was lit with small candles that cast light bouncing off the walls of the narrow hallway. Knowing most of Feliciano's family history by now, he knew that Feli had only lived in this house for the final seven years of his childhood. Before that point, he had lived with a distant cousin in a house in Rome.

"You are here to speak to Lovino, yes?" said Antonio, turning back with half a bow.

"Yes," said Ludwig. "On a matter most urgent."

"Right away, majesty," said Antonio. "He is working on a particular marble piece right now, hard at work, but he will have time! I guarantee it!"

Ludwig did hope so, for Feliciano's reports of his brother didn't inspire hope in how successful this conversation would go. Feliciano would never speak poorly of his brother, never in a million years, but he did speak of Lovino's moods, and he did speak of a certain…lack of tact, for lack of better words. It was apparent from just little discussion that Feliciano had, once again, been the entertainer in their family. They walked down the hall, Antonio leading Ludwig and a silent Toris through the slight curves of the workshop-house. He could hear the slight noises of splintering rock.

"Lovino! Lovi, Lovi?" Antonio tossed his head into the back room, and Ludwig waited in the hallway. The sounds of rocks and chisels stopped quite abruptly, and Ludwig winced at the sound of a tool falling. He was not expecting what came next.

"Seven stars, Antonio, can you not take a hint?" Out of the back room came an explosion of rock-dust and dark blue work-clothes. "You ass, I've been telling you and telling you for fucking hours – don't come near me when I'm working on this project!"

He laid eyes on Ludwig then, and the hallway suddenly got very quiet. The expert mason was slathered in a layer of grey residue, but in the light Ludwig supposed his hair was precisely similar to Feliciano's, down to the particular little up-curl, although Lovino's hair-curl was opposite Feliciano's. The eyes were a mean green, though, and that frown cast shadows on Lovino's face that Ludwig couldn't imagine Feliciano ever having.

"Can I offer anyone a cup of tea?" said Antonio.

XXXX

They took their tea in a drawing room, and Ludwig convinced Toris to taking advantage of the hospitality instead of backing away, as attendants had been trained to do. He liked Toris. They got along well. It was foolish to have a friend that was not willing to hold himself up as a friend, an equal in his own mind. By the time Antonio came in with the tea, Lovino had changed from his work-clothes into an elegant green satin ensemble.

"I figured I'd end up seeing you eventually," said Lovino, taking the tea from Antonio. "What do you want?"

At first, Ludwig didn't know what to do with the question. He had to admit, he was pretty used to the bowing and the kneeling and the 'your majesties,' but it appeared that Lovino didn't plan on wasting time with those formalities.

"Has Feliciano come here…er…recently?"

Lovino raised an eyebrow.

"He hasn't been here since before his precious Harvest Festival," said Lovino. "Why do you ask?"

Ludwig opened his mouth to try to explain, but then Lovino's green eyes went wide – shocked, then angry.

"You lost my brother!" Lovino almost rose from his seat. "You military bastard, you…you…!"

"Queen Kiku was kidnapped," said Ludwig. "Feliciano went after him. He appeared to be taking a south-east path, so we imagined he would stop here."

"Well, you imagined wrong," said Lovino. He stood up then and stormed out. Ludwig rose, troubled, but Antonio gave a cautious smile.

"Don't worry about Lovi, your majesty," said Antonio. "He walked out because he doesn't want to yell at you anymore. Consider it a complement."

"We need your help," said Ludwig. "I thought I knew Feliciano better than anyone, but…"

"A brother knows best," agreed Antonio. He nodded. "When Lovino took over the family business, I got to know him fairly well. He is temperamental, see, so he needs someone like me to keep up with him. But sometimes only Feliciano could do the trick." Antonio shrugged. "I am sure working so closely with Feliciano, you feel somehow responsible."

"I am responsible," said Ludwig softly. "I should have gone after Kiku at first notice. I should not have tried to hold Feliciano back. I should not have driven him away the way I did."

Antonio nodded sagely, a frown pulling at his lips.

"I consider Feli to be a little brother to me, even though he's off running the Kingdom," said Antonio. "You must know how wonderful he is. It would take a lot more than anything you could do to drive him off like this. He must feel responsible for losing Queen Kiku, somehow."

Ludwig pulled the note from his pocket and wordlessly offered it to Antonio.

"I told Feliciano that he was the one who entertains, and I was the one who makes decisions," said Ludwig. He shrugged. "It is how our roles work out."

Antonio frowned.

"This is my fault," said Ludwig.

"Damn you, military bastard." Lovino was back, and it appeared he had heard the last few statements. He stood leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, frown as resolute as the marble he worked. After a few moments, he walked with purpose and snatched the letter from Antonio's hands. His fingers trembled as the gravity of the note hit him.

"Damn you to hell," said Lovino. His voice had dropped even lower. "Damn you!" Ludwig took the letter when he shoved it back. Lovino paced back and forth, ignoring Antonio, who mumbled his name a few times and reached for his hand. Ludwig sat in his chair very still, feeling very much as though he would like to switch places with Toris and adapt that way of just fading into the background as only an attendant could do.

At last, it seemed Lovino had found his words.

"Explain," he said. "Why does Feliciano hold _you_ in such high regard, hm? From what I can see – from the way he praises you, to the way you hold yourself, to this fucking letter – you're the most important person in his life? _All my love?_ What the hell does that mean? I see you. You're a worthless piece of shit."

"Lovino, I think that's treason," said Antonio. Even Toris had tensed, reacting to the words in a way an attendant did not. Ludwig looked up carefully. Lovino's eyes were murderous. He knew. Ludwig couldn't hide it. A brother was privy to every secret.

"I'm sorry," said Ludwig. "You must know that I love Feliciano with everything I have in me."

"Enough to make him – what? Your paramour? Certainly not your husband."

"I didn't have a choice," said Ludwig, gripping the arm of the chair. Lovino turned and slapped him square across the face.

Military instincts kicked in, and Ludwig sprung to his feet, catching Lovino by the wrist and twisting, pinning the older man in one move. His face stung.

"King Ludwig!" Toris spoke for the first time, and Ludwig realized what he had done. He let go quickly, backing up, hands shaking.

"I apologize," he said. "Deeply. For everything." He stumbled backwards, beckoning Toris, his head pounding intensely. He had never lost control like this, not ever. He scrambled to grab his cloak and swung it around his shoulders. Lovino stood staring at him coldly.

"You had a choice," said Lovino. "You could have left him out of all of this."

"I apologize," said Ludwig, ignoring the barb. "I deeply regret troubling you. We will take our leave."

"I think that's best."

"Lovino…" said Antonio. Lovino turned away, almost making it back to the back room for his marble work. Then he growled.

"Military bastard," he said. Ludwig glanced over his shoulder, still all shook up. But the stone mason didn't look hurt – upset, yes, but having recovered.

"I want my brother safe."

"You know I will do everything in my power to bring him home," said Ludwig.

"Yeah, but your power isn't good enough," said Lovino. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Antonio, ready our horses."

"You're coming with us?" said Ludwig, blinking.

"Yes, dammit! Don't fucking make me say it twice!"

"Thank you," said Ludwig softly. He thought Lovino abrasive, rude, but in some ways, his voice was the one Ludwig needed to hear. He twisted the wedding ring on his finger, thinking of Kiku and of Feliciano. Kiku didn't mind any of it, not anymore. Between the three of them, this whole fidelity business was no longer an issue. He had forgotten what it would be like if the affair got out to the public.

He hoped Lovino would forgive him, but he knew it was impossible. In every way, this was Ludwig's fault. He would make it right.

* * *

**Pfft ending is pfft.**

**Romano! And Spain! By the way, Antonio is literally the Vargas manor caretaker. He's like their butler/gardener/Lovi's personal attendant. And Lovino makes marble pieces, probably sculptures, but I also think he works on mosaics and tiles, that sort of thing. We know that Feliciano is the artistic one, but who says Lovi doesn't have his own artistic talent? **

**This odd little quartet sets out in the upcoming Chapter 7! But first, let's return to Kiku and Yao in the Far East. Chapters 6 & 7 coming soon!**


	6. Chapter 6: The Proposed Far East

**Some more Kiku and Yao in the Far East. Mainly Kiku. I've come to like narrating as Kiku. He just kind of observes, and anything he says reflects a lot of what he means, especially when he's talking to Yao. *contented sigh* I'm such a fan.**

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Chapter 6: The Proposed Far East

Yao would not listen.

"You say you know this man from your youth, but it doesn't add up," he said. "Why here? Why now?"

Kiku hugged one of the rose-colored pillows to his chest and didn't speak. After meeting with General Takehiko for the first time, they had been ushered into rooms of luxury, and it was in Yao's that they met, two days late. Over a breakfast of thin bread and honey that morning, Takehiko had offered to take Kiku – and Yao, but that was a formality – riding. Kiku didn't think any horses were left in condition to ride in the Far East, but Takehiko had proved most of his assumptions about the wrecked former empire incorrect. Just by being alive.

"I don't know," he said. "I think we should hear him out."

"If this man is from the old Far East, I don't think we should," said Yao. "You don't remember what this country used to be, but I did. It was a cruel, unforgiving place." His hands closed into fists.

"If what he says is true, I used to live here," said Kiku.

"_If_ what he says is true."

"I have the memories to match." Yao's dark eyes were wounded. He ran a hair through his too-short hair.

"I don't trust him."

"You don't have to," said Kiku. "It's me he wants."

"Then why did he kidnap me as well?" said Yao, raising an eyebrow. "Make the excuse that we look similar, but that's nothing more than a racist excuse. Besides, we were wearing the colors and symbols of our kingdoms."

"I don't have an explanation," said Kiku. "Does that automatically make it suspicious?"

"_Yes,_" said Yao. "You're so trusting."

"You're being suspicious in a place suspicion doesn't need to be," said Kiku. "Maybe Hiko-sama means good."

"Stop calling him that."

"It's how I remember him." Kiku sighed. "Are you going to deny me my memories?"

"Why is it that _now_ you stand up for yourself?" Yao shook his head, sliding off the foot of the bed to begin pacing around the room.

"Why is it that now you start acting like you care?" said Kiku. It had been the question he hadn't asked. Yao stopped pacing to look at him, leaning on the bed post.

"I've always cared," he said. "It was just difficult to express it until now."

"Why is that?"

"Because we're in trouble now," said Yao.

"Maybe not."

"There's no maybe about it!" said Yao, shaking his head. "Deny this general's malicious intent all you want, but you can't deny that we were kidnapped and thrown in a dungeon. Would someone unwilling to hurt us do that?"

"Would we ever have come without being forced?" said Kiku.

"That's my point," said Yao. "If we have to be forced to come somewhere, it isn't a very good intention, huh?"

"Well, we're stuck here for now," said Kiku.

"Maybe, if your Hiko-sama is so kind, he'll let you go."

Kiku considered this. He supposed it wouldn't hurt to ask. Ludwig and the others would be worried about them, and would have perhaps started looking for them. If he and Yao returned to Paris, at least to stop the others from worrying, they would spare Ludwig and Feliciano a lot of grief.

Well, Feliciano, at least. He wasn't entirely sure Ludwig would come for him.

_That's ridiculous._ He and Ludwig had saved each other time after time – the Berlin Conference three years ago came to mind. Still, Ludwig didn't think he was an important diplomat. He was blinded by the racist generalizations shared by the nobility. That hurt. After all they had been through…

"I'm not sure I want to go," said Kiku softly. Yao sighed.

"I figured you would say that," said Yao. "Fine. Go on your ride."

"Aren't you coming?"

"No," said Yao. "I figure if he tries to get you in trouble, it might do you some good."

XX

They rode out along the narrow, crumbled walls of the Tokyo palace before making their way out along the three kilometers it would take to reach the actual city. For a while, Takehiko didn't speak. They rode alongside the main road, the once-scorched grass skimming the ankles of their horses, the breeze of late fall coursing around their heads. Kiku was surprised at how green it all was. When they reached the central city itself, Kiku glanced around at the decomposing buildings, half in wonder and half in a state of sad recognition. He saw few houses in habitable shape – the rest were falling apart, claimed by vines and the tall_ itadori_ plants that crisscrossed over the fallen stones and broken shards of glass. A bee lazily drifted over a circle of dandelions – the only splash of vibrancy in an otherwise grey and green world.

"This city was evacuated for good seven years ago," said Takehiko. "Before then, people were trying to live in these houses, despite their state. We've had two earth-quakes since then, which has only aided to the destruction. When I returned, the first thing I did was try to get people to move to the outer villages."

"Why?" said Kiku. He could nearly see the people leaving this city: the hard spears of the guards pointed in the direction of an elderly woman who peered up at them with nearly-blind eyes, a boy no older than fourteen wrapping an arm around his sick father and claiming that they had nowhere to go.

"The other cities are rebuilding," said Takehiko. "There are aid groups everywhere. It has been sixteen years since you the turmoil. Most towns have since then formed real governments, real voices. Some have banded under the lords that existed before, but most chased any agents of the dictatorship out. It was like the old witch-hunts, except the only thing that mattered was this symbol." He tapped the dragon emblem on the side of his horse's saddle. "If you had one, you were done for."

"I see you've brought the symbol back to favor."

"It was, for many years, a sign of unity," said Takehiko. "It has always been meant that way. Far Eastern culture at large – if you hated the Shoko line or not – was founded upon the legend of the dragon and the expanse of the stars above our heads."

"You mean to unite the Far East."

"I should like to," said Takehiko. "It is difficult to establish supremacy when your lands have dissolved. I have gained many followers in the last fifteen years, however. I feel the Far East needs a leader, a flag to follow."

Kiku didn't reply for a long time. They moved through the narrow streets of Tokyo, which Kiku saw almost through a faded film of memory and imagining. He half-recalled a market in this open area, and the brightly colored fabrics and strongly scented fruits nearly flashed out, as if to jump through time and remind Kiku that they had been there. His father had run this market, once in a past lifetime, before Hearts. Before Kiku could look back, check it again to see if it really was destroyed, they had moved on. They headed out of the city, up on the slight hills to overlook the twisting river below. Takehiko led him up a narrow slope to a precipice that seemed to hang over the water itself.

Takehiko dismounted, tying his horse to a tree, and made the final short climb to the top of what had once been a stone wall. Now an entire grove had taken up residence there. Kiku followed, taking a seat behind the standing general.

"I used to find your mother here," said Takehiko. He took his helmet off and pinned it under one arm. His ponytail caught the wind, making him look like a long-lost warrior from a storybook. "Whenever she was upset, she would climb to this peak and look out across the water and across the rolling hills of the domain of her caretaker."

"What was she like?" The childish question had passed over Kiku's tongue before he had a chance to monitor himself. Surprised, Takehiko glanced back.

"Radiant," he said. "Every moment I knew her, she was full of fire and color. It was like she thought herself the dragon that could really devour the sky."

"How did you know her?"

"She was sent here to attend the emperor's court when she was thirteen," he said. "I was a young knight. She stayed for summers. When her parents died, and their lands were passed to her aunt, she stayed here year-round. In most circumstances, she would have been entirely disinherited and forgotten, but the emperor took to her. Everyone took to her."

"You said you were going to marry her." Kiku didn't know what to make of this.

"I asked permission of the emperor on her eighteenth birthday. She had just met your father. She was adamant that she would not marry anyone but him."

Kiku sat on the wall. He imagined his father standing in the background, and Takehiko to the side, as a woman with long black hair argued to a faceless man on a high chair.

"Then you came into the picture," said Takehiko. "Because of that, your mother decided she was better off keeping you within the castle walls. Staying with me, when you were old enough to make a name for yourself."

"You would have still married her?"

"Of course," said Takehiko. "Her refusal of me, her dedication to you…I loved her all the more. I like to think that she would have come to feel similarly. She would have done anything for you, even marry a man she didn't love." He shrugged his shoulders. "I do think of her every once in a while. I wonder if she would agree with this."

"With you trying to take over the Far East again?"

"Take over?" Takehiko frowned. "Kiku, you must have the wrong idea. I merely hope to unify this cultural land and bring it out of its dark period. We must be able to compete with the Western Kingdoms economically. Small towns cannot defend against your royal armies."

"Is that why you brought me and Yao here?" said Kiku. "To stop invasion?"

"If I asked, it would be a fairly easy bargain," said Takehiko. "But the pact would not last. Someday, when the both of us are gone, the Four Kingdoms will turn their eyes to expansion – east. If we are not united then, our culture will be wiped out."

"Then why have you brought us? What service can we bring you?"

"I want the support of the two strongest Kingdoms," said Takehiko. Kiku didn't answer. "Be honest. Hearts and Spades have far more influence than Clubs and Diamonds. Clubs is an economic wreck. Diamonds is reliant purely on a surplus of wealth – their military is laughable. Spades and Hearts, however, have a balance."

"You want me to lend my militant strength to help you unite the Far East," said Kiku. "That is what this is about. A forced negotiation."

"Forced?" said Takehiko. "There is no force here."

"You disrupted the world meeting by kidnapping us."

"It is hardly a world meeting if only the western kingdoms are invited."

"That does not excuse the kidnapping."

Takehiko turned away from Kiku for a long time, and were it not for his patience, Kiku would have called out and demanded an answer. He was quite tired of the back-and-forth, the way people kept forcing him into negotiations. Was this what Queen would be like forever? Every few years, a new threat emerging, someone new to stick him in shackles and force him to talk diplomatically? Was this what Gilbert had chosen him to do?

"I am afraid the Four Kingdoms have turned their eyes from our people," said Takehiko. "You forget that I have been working on this for sixteen years, and you have been Queen for a mere three of them. The people to the west are deaf to our cries. To them, we are a mass of lesser, brutal people - those that rip themselves apart and cannot live in peace. We have lesser music, lesser art, lesser civilization. No civilization." He glanced at Kiku. "I would expect you to understand this."

Kiku thought of reciting an old poem and watching the ladies squeal. He thought of Lord Surrey's speech – _the Eastern Queen._ He thought of the way they had taken the success of the Berlin Conference from him, and the way even Ludwig had fallen prey to their beliefs - _They're never going to think of you any differently._

"We would have listened," said Kiku. "Yao and I are rulers who understand Eastern culture. We would have given you audience."

"You and Master Wang are, indeed, the only ones who I thought would listen."

"There are other ways other than kidnapping. You could have asked."

"I did ask, and promptly got referred to King Alfred, King Ludwig." Takehiko raised an eyebrow. "Two blonde-haired, blue-eyed men, military men, programmed into the very ways of their kingdoms. Identical, and in that way, impossible to access."

It was starting to make sense.

"You will have to explain this to Yao. He is still hesitant."

"We can discuss over dinner." Takehiko nodded. "All I want is for you to listen, and consider my proposal."

Kiku stared down at the river, which moved as if nothing had ever changed about it, ushering a few boats down to another place, where merchants were more likely to sell goods. Takehiko stayed silent, his helmet tucked under his arm, his ponytail waving behind him, his eyes far away – as if he was caught in the same past Kiku couldn't quite make out, as if he were a great warrior whose world had been stolen.

XX

"Unification," said Yao, trembling. "What country would that be, but a threat."

They stood in the garden nearest the dining room, the one place that looked preserved beyond the chaos. In the dark, Yao shivered. Kiku watched him, unspeaking. After a few minutes, Yao looked back up.

"You know we can't believe a single word he says," said Yao.

"I don't think he's lying," said Kiku. "What has General Takehiko done? Reached out to cities in need. Created a vision for a peaceful Far East, not this ragtag group of villages."

"Amassed an army. Taken over the old royal palace. Kidnapped two rulers."

"All for a cause."

"Everyone has a cause," said Yao. "Even terrorists and rapists." He ran a hand through his hair, seeming startled to realize that he had cut it.

"You want to help him," said Yao. "Why wouldn't you? He tells you these stories about your mother and your childhood. He shows you what the Far East would be like rebuilt into his empire, and the carnage of what it is today."

"That carnage shows the damage that has been done to these people," said Kiku. "These people who are suffering."

"They were suffering before the empire fell apart, and after, and they're still suffering." Yao's face fell. "You were a royal kid that got evacuated. You didn't see the lowest of the low."

"It seems that General Takehiko wants to make things better," said Kiku. "He wants to end the suffering."

"No," said Yao. "He would direct the suffering."

"You're done considering this plan, then?"

Yao shrugged. He paused for a few seconds on the balls of his feet, measuring the cold, the wind, and the animosity.

"I may bring it up to Arthur and Alfred, if we are ever to leave." At this, he glared at Kiku. "I don't think I will dispatch Spades soldiers to march halfway across the world to enforce the will of an ex-general. Especially one who pulled of a successful kidnapping of two of the most monitored men in the world."

"The kidnapping is an act of desperation," said Kiku.

"Still, it took a lot of sleazy maneuvers to pull it off," said Yao. "This does not lend me confidence to the type of people Takehiko has at his disposal."

"You are being far too suspicious."

"And you are being far too trusting!"

Kiku didn't answer. He looked around at the garden and the dim moonlight that left silver sheer on the flowers. Yao stood beside him, watching him but expecting nothing of him. They both knew where the other stood.

"Will you come in for desert?" The door opened, and golden light clashed with the silver. Kiku turned to face Takehiko's silhouette.

"General Takehiko, we've done some thinking," said Yao. "We should return to the kingdoms in the morning."

They couldn't read Takehiko's expression.

"It will be impossible to consider such a proposal without the aid of our fellow monarchs," said Yao. "After all, we embody much more than just one man's opinion."

"Of course," said Takehiko, and as he welcomed them inside, he was nodding. "I would expect nothing less."

"You should expect a formal notice from Spades," said Yao.

"And one from Hearts," said Kiku. Takehiko nodded.

"Very well, I expected nothing less," he said. "Now then. Desert?"

He put a hand around Kiku's shoulders but didn't touch him, and Yao looked back with a frown only made deeper by the late candles. They ate lemon tart, just the three of them, and said no more of reconstruction, but Kiku couldn't help but hear the words inferred in every comment Takehiko made - every inquiry into their lives in the kingdoms, every exclamation about the relative simplicity of western design. Takehiko was begging the decision, coupling it with stories of Kiku's mother that whispered of a lady Kiku didn't remember.

Kiku wondered if he'd been fooled by it all.

He wondered if he was looking forward to being fooled as well.

* * *

**Some important notes to contextualize this chapter!**

**Itadori = Japanese knotweed. **

**I've attached the –sama suffix to how Japan addresses Takehiko because the knew each other when Kiku was very young, so he would address Hiko as a lord.**

**Shoko period = Emperor Shoko was the 101st emperor of Japan, who ruled from 1412-1428. He died at a very young age, and was replaced by a 10-year-old emperor, Go-Hanazono. In this story, I've chosen it as the name of a dynasty because there's something symbolic about the young death/replaced by a 10-year-old thing to me. **

**When I say Far East/Far Eastern, I'm generally referring to the ethnic group. The whole thing has never been really organized, but formerly, the Shoko dynasty had militant groups that set up little pockets of power around the area. It was never a real country, but it was under the domain of the dynasty. If that makes any sense. It's kind of like how people think of the people of the Middle East as all one people, even though that kind of takes away from the #agency of people.**

**Next chapter will be written by the end of the week and returns to Ludwig! It is currently called "The Worst Corners" after that Yao quote. God, I'm so excited to get into Yao's background. So excited. It will be a central part of the book starting in the coming chapters. See you all soon!**

**~Elsi**


	7. Chapter 7: The Worst Corners

**And it was this long chapter that brought me to finish NaNoWriMo at 54,013 words. Sheesh. That sounds like a lot. Anyways, I'm not sure if I like this chapter, or if it is an utter disaster. I feel like I slapped way too much together. In my defense, I wrote this entire chapter while recovering from food poisoning. You know, the best kind.**

**Please enjoy!**

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Chapter 7: The Worst Corners

They plodded cautiously through the darkest days Ludwig had lived in years, a ragtag group out of place in a world marred by flames and regrets. The Far East. Until a day ago, he had never entered the uneven country, but now, in its midst, he realized that perhaps he was not as down-to-earth as he had previously thought. Military training and a young life in the poorer districts of Hearts had shown him poverty.

This was not poverty – it was something else entirely. The land was green, almost to be called lush, but its emptiness left it a grey shell, as if the life had left it and utterly refused to return. Homes had been erected, yes, and people appeared to live there. They trotted through small pocket villages where society was bubbling: markets featured ripe fruit and finer fabrics, and children played in a schoolyard not unlike those in Hearts. There they would see houses in good condition, a reminder that the collapse of the emperor had, in fact, been sixteen years ago. When the center of the village fell away to the road behind them, however, not even rotten fruit grew. They passed a slum in which a young girl and boy, naked except for a cloth sheet the color of rat urine, hopped up and down in a grey puddle so rank Ludwig turned away. A third boy, his dark hair matted and grease-covered, looked up at the sound of horses and came running, only for an older woman wearing one shoe scooped him up and pushed him inside a wooden crate.

Lovino spoke little, except to comment on Ludwig's choice of resting point. The sculptor and mason didn't seem to have many happy words at all, and in a place of such unfortunate conditions, there was really no need for Lovino's bleak vocabulary. Antonio, however, filled the silence with an occasional hummed melody, or a well-placed story of his youth in Western Hearts. Ludwig let himself hear the words without really listening to them, in part grateful for the distraction from his thoughts.

They recruited help from a tracker who, as it turned out, had seen Feliks and Feliciano riding through just a few days earlier. From what the tracker, whose name was Ling, told them, Feliciano had also hired someone, and they were traveling East, after a blue-backed carriage.

"I don't know anything about a blue-backed carriage," said Ling when Ludwig pressed him for details, "but I do know how to track a rich ruler, and I know all the places any decent tracker would have rested."

It was in one of those resting points, a former hub of trade that actually contained some current-day prosperity, that Ling swung from his saddle to investigate a cloth soaked in a dark liquid.

"What did you find?" said Ludwig. Ling used a cleaning cloth to gently unveil a very familiar emblem and hand up a pale rose cloak. Ludwig stared at the blood-stained Hearts cloak without speaking, without really processing what he held.

"That's Feliks' cloak," said Toris very suddenly. He had said practically nothing on this trip. Ludwig silently passed the cloak to Toris, who gripped it tight.

"My best guess is that they were attacked by bandits," said Ling. "Not uncommon on this road. Come with me. I know where they would have been brought."

Ludwig's heart had never beat faster as they stormed through the surprisingly busy streets of this trade hub, seeking out the small inn on the opposite side of the city. Ling nearly slammed the door down and said something quickly, in the language spoken in the East. They passed their horses to inn staff, with Antonio doing his best to clear the atmosphere and the language barrier. Lovino stood against one wall of the inn, his arms crossed. Toris did not move, instead clutching Feliks' bloody cloak to his chest as if it was the only thing he had left. Ludwig stood by his attendant as his attendant had always stood by him. Ling was still arguing with the innkeeper.

"They'll be okay," said Ludwig. Toris nodded.

He wanted to offer something more, but he couldn't find the proper words. It suddenly occurred to Ludwig that though Toris had been looking after him for more than three years now, Ludwig knew very little about him. He wondered if he was worthy to call himself a friend to Toris, as he had thought they were.

When Ling turned away from the desk some few minutes later, Ludwig sprung upon him. The tracker was kneading his forehead.

"They've paid a sizeable sum for a private room, and for a doctor," he said. "They've asked not to be found."

"They're hurt?" said Toris in a barely-audible voice.

"I don't care about money," said Ludwig. "Tell the innkeeper that I will pay for his speech."

Ling relayed the message. Ludwig stared down the innkeeper behind the desk, who took one look at the powerful king and couldn't protest any longer. Ling returned with a set of keys, and they stormed up the rickety stairs and to the marked room.

"Feliciano!" Lovino was first in the door, and Toris was not far behind.

"I'll give you space," said Antonio, standing aside. Ling joined him. Ludwig hesitated over the threshold, peering in. The room was dimly lit, but big enough for them all to fit. He made out an unfamiliar woman in the bed closest to the door – their tracker, no doubt – and then saw Feliciano.

Lovino had his arms entirely around his brother and was shaking him. The two seemed to be talking over each other. Ludwig watched them reunite with a bitter taste in his mouth, but when Feliciano laid eyes on Ludwig, he nudged Lovino away.

"Feliciano." Ludwig felt the word heavy on his tongue. Feli bit his lip. His auburn hair was disheveled, and his eyes had lost that constant gleam, although perhaps it was the light. He looked pale, almost stretched at the seams, and he was wearing a worn, cream shirt that had nearly been cut off of him at the sleeves. There was a thin cut beneath his right eye.

"I thought I could find them," said Feliciano. He held his hands out to Ludwig as if offering himself up for sacrifice. "You didn't seem to care one way or the other."

"This was foolish," said Ludwig.

"Kiku had been kidnapped. Nothing else mattered but getting him back." Feliciano's mouth was drawn tight, sewn into a line.

"There had to be some other way," said Ludwig.

"Other than going after him immediately?" Feliciano turned away, laughing. "We would have lost the carriage. As it is, we've lost the carriage."

"Are you alright, idiot?" said Lovino, shooting Ludwig a sharp glance. Feliciano cast a look across the room. Ludwig followed his gaze and understood why.

There was an Eastern doctor in the room as well, mixing something. Toris had already taken up his post by his friend's bedside, clutching Feliks' cloak while staring down at Feliks' flat features. The attendant looked paler than death itself, even in the grey light.

"We were pulled off the road by thieves," said Feliciano, his hands fumbling together as if he was trying to find something to do with them that would bring them out of this situation. "We weren't paying enough attention. We were just trying to get here. Sang Mi was knocked off her horse, but Feliks fought them back before they could hurt me. While we were running, he stopped to help Sang Mi, and they got him with a knife."

"Will he live?" Toris' voice was strangled, but louder than usual."

"We believe so," said the Eastern doctor. "The hardest part for him was making it through last night, but he was alright. Since he has lasted this long, I think he will recover."

Toris lost his composure, pushing his forehead into the light green sheets around Feliks' shoulder. Ludwig could only watch, for the moment not thinking of Kiku or Feliciano or anyone, just the two attendants.

He had never thought of Feliks as anyone but Feliciano's admittedly strange attendant. He had never thought of Toris as anyone but the stoic and helpful attendant who ran his baths and adjusted his crown. There had been hooded attendants at military school, and Ludwig had once thought them strange, out-of-place. When they cleaned his room, he begged them to take down their hoods so he could thank them eye-to-eye and using their names. When Toris had come to him, wearing the attendant cloak with the hood entirely back, Ludwig had considered him accessible, someone who could actually meet his needs. Now he understood why the attendants kept their hoods up. Hoods up, hoods down, the attendants were treated the same: faceless, voiceless, without family, without friendship, without ambition – transparent.

But now, seeing Toris holding tight to Feliks' hand and imagining Feliks throwing himself before a bandit for Feliciano, Ludwig knew how wrong he was. Maybe he, Ludwig, was the truly transparent one.

"You're angry at me," said Feliciano after a long silence. He turned to Lovino and took his brother's hand. Lovino wouldn't look back at him, but his grip tightened. Ludwig watched without speaking. "Lovi, ve, look at me."

"How many times have I told you?" said Lovino. "That verbal tick is the reason nobody gives you any respect. No wonder you were attacked by bandits."

"You're right," said Feliciano, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips. "Thank you for coming after me."

"Your stupid king forced me into it," said Lovino. "He nearly broke my arm."

Ludwig winced as Feliciano raised his eyebrows at him.

"Military reflexes," he said. "I thought that if anyone knew where you had gone, it would be your brother."

"And Lovino got you here," said Feliciano, smiling. "Lovi, you're so smart!"

"It was pretty obvious," said Lovino. "Of course you went running off after your fellow monarch. Of course you went to the East. You're so easy to read."

"I'm glad you figured it out," said Feliciano. "I was afraid, all by myself." He averted his eyes. "I thought Ludwig would be mad, so I had to go."

"You felt like you had to prove yourself, didn't you?" Lovino clicked his tongue. "Idiot."

Shyly, Feliciano looked up at Ludwig, who wanted nothing more than to press his face into Feliciano's shoulder and apologize over and over again, until Feliciano laughed and kissed his temple and told him to stop being so silly. They had fought before, but this felt different. Ludwig couldn't say why.

"I've been sitting here for a while," said Feliciano suddenly. "I would like to take a walk. Ludwig, will you come with me? You're big and scary – you'll keep the bad guys away." He smiled a little too thinly, but Ludwig nodded anyways, unable to displace the lump in his throat. They stepped from the room.

Antonio looked up and broke into a massive grin.

"Feli! You're alright!" Ludwig stepped back as Antonio pulled Feliciano into a massive hug, lifting him off his feet. Feliciano laughed, again too thin. The caretaker of the Vargas name set Feliciano down and gripped his shoulders for a few seconds.

"Is everything okay?" said Antonio.

"I'm fine, ve," said Feliciano. "My attendant, Feliks, was badly hurt, but the doctor says he'll be okay."

"I'm glad he'll be okay," said Antonio. "Where were you going, anyways?"

"I was following a blue carriage, headed south-east," said Feli, eyebrows furrowing. "Sang Mi looked at a map and thought they may be heading for Tokyo."

"That's where Kiku is from," said Ludwig. Feliciano nodded. Ling made a soft noise, reminding Ludwig that he was still there.

"I've heard rumors of a military force building in Tokyo," he said. Ludwig frowned, and the battle cogs in his head began to turn.

"A military force?" he said. "What do you mean?"

"Ludwig, hey," said Feliciano, tugging at his sleeve. "We'll talk about this later." He bit his lip, and the happy mask almost fell apart. "I want my walk."

"Alright, I'm coming," said Ludwig.

"We'll come looking for you if you're out too long," said Antonio. Ludwig nodded. Feliciano held his arm in both hands, not speaking until they had moved out into the streets of the city. They found a small stone bench not far away, nestled under the closed overhang of a shop. People darted in and out of candlelight, but appeared to be moving towards their homes for the evening.

"I thought I had taken all the right precautions," said Feliciano, letting go of Ludwig. "I left at night, I bribed the guards to let me through without sounding the warning bells. I took a winding route through Hearts, hoping you wouldn't find me."

"You didn't want me to come?"

"Not at first, ve. I wanted to do this myself. I thought that if you came, you would bring me back before I found Kiku. I'm so worried about him."

"I am, too."

"Then why didn't you go looking?" Feliciano still wouldn't look at him. "You, me, and Kiku – we're supposed to be a perfect trio. You should have been frantic."

"I thought that I wasn't the best one to act."

"There was no one better," said Feli. "Ve, wherever he is, Kiku is still probably thinking about those stupid words you said."

Ludwig was staring at Feliciano, who wouldn't look back. He wanted to reach out in the dark and take Feliciano's hand in his own, knowing that it would make him feel better. But that wouldn't be right. This wasn't about Feliciano and Ludwig, not really. It needed to be about Feliciano, Kiku, and Ludwig. A trio. Feliciano was right.

"We'll go after him, then," he said.

"When Feliks has recovered," said Feliciano. Ludwig didn't answer right away, not sure how to formulate his thoughts into words. They had wasted enough time. Feliciano was right – it was up to them to go after Kiku, because no one else could do the job better. They had no time to lose.

"Feliks saved us," said Feliciano. "I want him to be okay."

"Maybe just the two of us go on," said Ludwig. "We can't abandon Kiku any longer."

"One day," said Feliciano. "Just give us one day."

Ludwig couldn't deny him anything more.

XXX

"This military force in Tokyo," said Ludwig, peering over a map of what remained of the Far East. He traced a line across the map's surface. "It fits the path we were following. Whoever took Kiku and Yao took them here." He tapped the thin label – _Tokyo._

"How do we know that for sure?" said Lovino. The group was gathered in a room adjacent to the one in which Toris watched over Feliks. Lovino stood standing against the wall, as usual distant, but Ling hovered by Ludwig's left shoulder, and Antonio and Feliciano sat on red puffy chairs around the table.

"We have no other leads," said Ludwig. "Even if it leads us to a dead end, knowing about this force building will help us gage a potential enemy."

"Soldiers wearing the old imperial emblem have marched in a hundred-kilometer radius around the old palace," said Ling.

"The old imperial emblem?" said Feliciano, leaning on his hands. "Ve, Ludwig, didn't Kiku say the emperor died? Who could be leading this?"

"Most of those working for the emperor were killed in the Horror after the empire fell," said Ling thoughtfully. "Though it is possible one or two survived." The Eastern man put his hand on the table. "I worry."

"We'll help, don't worry, Mister Ling!" said Antonio. Ludwig met Feliciano's amber eyes, understanding the graveness echoed back at him. They both knew where they belonged, and it was not here.

"We'll move after Kiku at first light," said Ludwig. "It should take us a little under a day, if we move quickly and along this straight path."

"Is that a good idea?" said Lovino. "We're not going to get attacked on the road like this lot did, are we?"

"I doubt it," said Ludwig. "We're a larger party, we're riding quickly, and if anything bad comes, I will fight." His hand went to the knife at his belt. "We should set out at first light."

"And what happens to the lot in there?" said Lovino.

"They'll be fine," said Feliciano, turning to his brother. "Lovi, you can stay if you want. It'll be safer, ve~!" He got up and went to pull on his brother's sleeve, but Lovino shoved him back.

"Don't touch me," he said. "And you're the one who needs safety, asshat."

"Is Lovi worried about me?"

"No, dammit! You're the weaker one, that's all!"

"Oh, but Ludwig will protect me, won't you, Ludwig?"

"Uh, Feli –"

"Damn you, military bastard!"

They set out the next morning, leaving behind Toris and a still-recovering Feliks with Sang-Mi. In all honesty, Ludwig was surprised Lovino insisted on sticking with them, but perhaps that was because Feliciano was going. Ludwig let the two brothers ride in front of him, choosing to take the back. Antonio rode beside him most of the way, once again providing the annoying-yet-distracting hum Ludwig needed.

The realization soon came to him that he would see Kiku very soon. Ludwig knew that the first thing he needed to do was apologize and try to make things right with his husband, but would he be given a chance to? They had no idea who they were up against. Though it was highly unlikely that any real harm had come to Yao and Kiku – if their attacker had wanted them dead, he would have left them dead on the conference room floor – he still worried about the state in which his fellow monarch would be left. Ludwig tightened his grip on the horse's reins. If any harm had come to Kiku, it would be on his head, and he would pay it back tenfold.

They rode throughout the morning before seeing any riders, but those they did see were fur traders. Ludwig held his hood tight over his head and watched the ground as Ling discussed something in a harsh Eastern dialect. He was growing increasingly grateful to the Eastern tracker, although he understood that with his growing gratitude would come a growing hole in his wealth. Not that he minded. They had plenty to spare, and it would be worth every coin given to the tracker if he could see Yao and Kiku back home safely.

Around mid-day, they reached what Ling called the most prosperous city in the entirety of the Far East. To Ludwig it looked almost familiar, a bustle of energy that would not be out of place in Central Hearts. They rode through the streets, hoods up, attracting more than their fair share of odd looks. For lunch, Ling had them all pause while he went to trade at a fresh market. Ludwig lingered to the side of the road with the others, unspeaking.

"I like this city," said Feliciano softly.

"Shut up, idiot," said Lovino. "Your Western words will attract attention."

"Sorry, Lovi!"

Ludwig didn't know if the pair of them even knew the meaning of quiet, for a few seconds later, Lovino sighed exaggeratedly.

"We're going to have to eat Eastern shit for lunch, aren't we?" he said. "I'm getting pretty sick of rice."

"Maybe Mister Ling will bring you a nice juicy tomato to put on it?" said Antonio.

"Stupid, tomatoes don't grow in the East!"

Sighing, Ludwig let his eyes move down through the streets surrounding them. They paused near the entrance of the market, just out of the way of the attention of the civilians rushing in and out. This place wasn't at all uncomfortable. He would like to live here, if there were some sort of stable government. He figured there must be, or the entire city would be a crime zone.

Across the street from the entrance of the market was a small tavern with a name spelled out in characters Ludwig couldn't read. There was an inn close by as well, and the sound of a blacksmith brought him some comfort, some reminder of home. He had always pictured the Far East as some war-torn disaster zone, but perhaps it was simply a more unorganized version of the rich and poor as he knew them. The only thing the Far East was really missing was order. He could never be happy here, for he loved order too much, but the marketplace and the buildings were nice.

A man waited in the alleyway closest to Ludwig, his hood pulled up. He held a horse with one gloved hand and waited staring at the side of the wall. Ludwig wasn't sure what he was waiting for. After several minutes, the side door to the tavern flung open, and light splashed across the man in the alleyway. What appeared to be the tavern keeper danced into sight, glancing back and forth. Narrowing his eyes, Ludwig watched as the two passed a young woman between them by the arm. She appeared to be unconscious. His frown deepened when the man passed a small velvet bag into the hands of the tavern keeper and pulled the woman with him onto the horse. She lolled in front of him onto the neck of the horse, and he rode out into the street before Ludwig.

Before he even knew what he was doing, Ludwig started moving, and he stood in front of the man horseback. Looking up under his hood, the man said something in Eastern. Ludwig could only stare at the young woman. She was dressed in all black, and her eyes were closed. As he watched, the hooded man tossed a thick scarlet cloak over her.

"Ludwig?" Feliciano appeared at his side. The man said something again, something Ludwig didn't understand. He had a bad feeling about this. Sighing, the man turned his horse around and started down the street the other way.

"Ludwig? What are you doing?" said Feliciano. Ludwig glanced at Feliciano, making out Feli's rich eyes under his hood. He glanced down at the man in the street, but he had already rounded the corner.

"I don't know," he said. "Something felt wrong about that man…"

"Lots of shady stuff happens," said Lovino. "You don't think that will change here, do you? Idiot."

Ludwig didn't know what he thought.

They kept riding after a small picnic outside the city. Ling predicted that if they kept up their pace, they could camp out for the night just outside Tokyo and scout it out the next morning, or earlier if Ludwig really couldn't wait. By the late afternoon, however, it seemed their problem was much solved, for down the road came the pounding of hooves.

"Another set of traders, no doubt," said Antonio. "Maybe we can ask them more questions!"

"They could be soldiers," said Ludwig. He pulled the hood up on his cloak and saw the others follow suit.

Ling called out to the riders as they came walking closer, pleasantly waving and speaking words Ludwig didn't understand. There were two riders, each clad in dark cloaks with the hoods pulled up. Ling asked a question, and at first, neither replied. Ludwig watched the exchange, wondering if he had seen the boots on the first rider before. He could make out a symbol on the side of the horse's saddle: a dragon chasing the stars, all wrapped in a circle.

Ling asked the riders another question, and Ludwig urged his horse forward a step without meaning to. The rider in the back suddenly surged forward, coming to stand in front of Ludwig.

"Ludwig?" And then he tipped back his hood, and Ludwig did the same. Feliciano cried out.

"Kiku!" he cried. The front rider tipped back his hood, and a suddenly short-haired Yao stared at them hollowly.

"Feliciano, Ludwig…" Kiku shook his head. "What are you doing here?"

"We came after you!" said Feliciano. "Well, I left first, ve, but then I got lost and attacked by bandits, so Ludwig came after me, which is really good he did, because he brought everyone, and then we figured out where to go, and we came here!"

"What about the conference?" said Yao.

"We tried to continue affairs, but I think in the end it was called off," said Ludwig. "By the time I left, Alfred was about to protest the whole affair."

"What happened to you?" said Feliciano, tilting his head. "Did you escape?"

"No," said Kiku, shaking his head. He met Ludwig's eyes, and there was something empty, something lost in them that Ludwig couldn't read. Something in Kiku's eyes blamed Ludwig, too. That needed no further explanation. Ludwig suddenly felt very small, sitting on a horse in the Far East in his silk hooded cloak and in a shirt still printed with the royal emblem. As though Kiku was the dominant one again.

"We negotiated our way back," said Yao. His eyes were on Kiku. Ludwig was a little unnerved to find the usual animosity lost from Yao's gaze, but he supposed that was a good thing.

"Are you alright?" said Ludwig. He wanted desperately to apologize, but with this many people around, the words wouldn't come out.

"We're fine," said Kiku, his face blank as usual. He started his horse walking again. "Is everything in order? Can we return home now?"

Ludwig watched the back of his head, a bleak feeling growing in his chest. There was something Kiku wasn't telling him.

"Yes," he said after a moment. "Yes, we can go home."

* * *

**And we're going home again. Which feels good after a foray into the Far East I didn't exactly have planned out. Heh. Heh...okay. Well. Next chapter will bring us back to Hearts, at least temporarily. Everyone is back together again, though!**

**I considered making Ling a real character, but then I decided he's only going to exist in this chapter anyways, and of the Asians I have left at my disposal, none would fit. I already have two of them slated for parts anyways. There's some slight hinting as to an underground side plot of this thing in this chapter. We'll get to that shortly. Wow, so excite.**

**Tell me what you thought! Thanks everybody, and happy Thanksgiving!**

**~Elsi**


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